


What Sets a Fire in My Belly

by darkblood



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, M/M, Omega Verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-06 13:13:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 32,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3135749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkblood/pseuds/darkblood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One's class can change everything. Asahi knew that all too well. Noya on the other hand, was in for quite the ordeal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Three days.

It’d been three days and Noya was still gone. 

Suga had told him not to worry, that Noya was probably sick or something, which only ended up making Asahi worry more. Daichi told him to concentrate on practice, which was something Asahi was finding very difficult to do.

Noya was never one to miss practice, even when he was sick. The boy even wore a mask throughout practice as to make sure not to get anyone else sick. He played through bruises and sore joints, on lack of sleep due to midterms and finals, even on a empty stomach on the days he skipped lunch to squeeze in a bit more practice. Noya was unstoppable when it came to him and playing volleyball.

So the fact that he had missed three days of practice planted unease inside Asahi’s stomach.

It was enough to throw off his game to the point where Coach Ukai noticed. When he called for a practice game, he called for Asahi to sit this one out, leaving the rest of the team to play five on five. Ukai gave him a pat on the shoulder and a side glance before returning his concentration to the rest of the team, leaving Asahi to slide down the wall and sit, where he watched without seeing. His teammates moved, but he couldn’t say who did what, or even who was on each team. His mind was elsewhere.

After several minutes of squeaking shoes and loud voices, Asahi closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, hoping to gain clear thought. He took in all the smells, noting each scent his teammates emitted.

Karasuno was one of the few teams in the in the league that was primarily built of betas, which Asahi was fairly thankful for. They only had a few alphas, and even fewer omegas, so the team as a whole didn’t let off an immense territorial presence as other teams did when they were built out of an army of alphas. The betas barely produced any scent, while the omegas were very good at hiding it, which just left the alphas, who tended to keep theirs in check. The only time it ever overly leaked was when Tanaka would get too excited about something, or when Daichi had to scold everyone when they wouldn’t shut up. Honestly, if any outsider approached their team, they’d have an incredibly hard time picking out everyone’s status, or simply assume the team was built entirely of betas. Either way, their team was a rare breed compared to neighboring schools, and Asahi liked it just the way it was.

The smell of a certain beta approached him, so Asahi opened his eyes. Takeda stared back at him. Asahi suddenly sat up straighter.

“S-sensei.”

The advisor smiled kindly at him. “Azumane, if you’re not feeling too well, you can go change if you wish.”

“I-I shouldn’t leave early,” Asahi mumbled, scratching the base of his head, bumping his hair bun slightly. “That wouldn’t be fair to the others …”

“It’s fine,” said Ukai, causing both the boy and the teacher to look his way. His eyes remained glued to the court. “Go home. You’re not doing much sitting there anyway.”

Asahi lowered his head slightly, thinning his lips as the older alpha spoke. He found it pointless to fight, so he nodded and rose to leave silently. Takada wished him a good weekend as Asahi left the building.

He hated confrontation, which went against everything that Asahi was _supposed_ to be. He was one of the very few alphas on the team, but he never acted like one. He constantly hid his scent, he never fought for dominance in any fight, he wasn’t supposed to ever step down and let others walk all over him, but that’s exactly what he did. The tropes that came with being an alpha where forced upon him as soon as he hit puberty like a sack of bricks. It was apparent to everyone around him as he towered over others, scaring others off with just his very presence. It wasn’t anything he ever wanted. When others recognized him as an alpha, they either cowered before him or saw him as a leader and thrusted responsibility onto him, looking up to him, expecting things from him. He was put on a pedestal that he never wanted to be on. His very personality was exactly the opposite of what an alpha was seen as to the rest of the world.

As he got older, he would hide his scent as much as possible, to the point where other alphas tend to shun him for his weak demeanor. He was an alpha, yet he acted like a beta, which left him in a grey hazy area between classes, leaving him to receive odd looks from both parties, and no where to hide from hushed judgements.

Asahi quickly changed and swung his bag over his shoulder before heading down the steps and past the open gym door to give one last look at his team before he went home for the weekend. He appreciated his team more than they realized. With them, his status seemed to disappear and they all were equals. Especially with Noya.

Noya.

_Right_.

He walked home looking at the ground with his fists shoved deep into his pockets, hiding his hands as fingers worried into calloused palms while he thought. He partly wished he could remember where the boy lived so he could go check up on him, but he wasn’t a hundred precent sure where that was and was too afraid to knock on doors until he found the correct one. However, even if he _did_ know where exactly it was, it would probably be rude of him to drop by unannounced to begin with. Perhaps he should call his house when Asahi gets home, or is that equally as rude? He’d have to look up the house number in the phonebook though. How many Nishinoyas would be in there though? What if there were a dozen of them?! He couldn’t just call them all, could he?!

Asahi stopped dead in his tracks. _Wait a second_ … he dropped his bag to the cement and hastily dug through it, finding what he was looking for - his phone. He flipped it open and scrolled down the contacts and let out a disbelieved laugh as he saw Nishinoya Yuu pop up on the screen. He had forgotten the libero had stolen his phone from him last year, shortly upon joining the volleyball club, and programmed himself in there. Asahi had never needed to contact him before, since they saw each other every practice, but right now, the alpha was incredibly thankful Noya stole his phone that day.

He was about to hit the call button, when he stopped himself. Was that too forward, just calling him out of the blue? What if he really _was_  sick and was trying to sleep? Calling him would just wake him up. The brunet drummed his fingers against the phone for a moment before settling on the idea of sending him a message instead. That way, it won’t wake him up, and he can respond when he’s up to it. It was short and simple, but Asahi couldn't’ really think of anything to say, so he left it at that and hit send.

As he walked home, he kept his phone in his hand, waiting for a response. It made no noise the rest of the walk home. There was no new messages when he got out of the shower, nor after supper. It did not go off once as he worked on his homework, nor laid in bed in the dark, staring at the harsh light of his phone.

The seed of unease in his stomach blossomed tenfold.


	2. Chapter 2

Noya wanted to die.

He wanted to peel off this skin that was clearly too hot for him. He wanted to rip out his lungs that could not get enough air no matter how hard he breathed. He wanted to burn his soiled clothes, his soiled bed. He wanted to bite off his fingernails that were now torn and ragged from scratching the surfaces of his room, the room his mother so graciously locked him away in. He wanted to slice himself right in half to get far away from the pain, the ache his body was feeling.

This was the third day of this hell.

He wanted to die.

He didn’t understand. When he came of age, he thought he was a beta, everyone did. A normal person. He won’t lie, he had been a tad disappointed when he discovered he would never be an alpha like Ryuu or Asahi, but he had accepted what he was and didn’t let it hold him back from enjoying his life.

But it all went to shit.

Those few days ago, he just had to wake up with a fever and tremors, and watch as his mother’s eyes widened with realization. She ushered him back to his room, told him that she’d call the school, then proceeded to lock him in there as she said she would bring him breakfast. When she returned with food, she finally explained what was going on.

He was going into heat.

Noya argued with his mother on how that didn’t make sense. He was a beta. Betas don’t go into heat. Apparently, he had it all wrong. He wasn’t a beta, just a late presenter, giving off a very neutral presence until his body matured to the fullest, granted it was much later than others.

The boy groaned as he rolled around on his bed in agony.

_“It could last anywhere from three to five days, though there are some who’s can last as long as a week.”_

Another whine escaped him. A whole week? He didn’t think his body could last that long. Everything hurt. Every brush against his skin sent prickles throughout his being, and his lower half aching as it threatened to set fire to his ruined pants. He wouldn’t stop leaking, no matter how hard he willed not to. He had tried to release some of the pressure and worked himself with his hand, or the sheets, or anything he could rub against, but he couldn’t concentrate, leaving him unfinished and in more agony than what he started with. He couldn’t even sleep it off, for it kept him awake to the point where he finally would pass out from exhaustion. When he would wake back up, he had about an hour or so to eat in peace before the full effect of this damned heat would rear its head and trap him in an endless cycles of writhing desire that had no where to go.

Death should do him a fucking favor and grace him already.

Over his heaving breathing, Noya almost missed his phone going off. He turned and stretched out his hand to snatch his phone from the side table and brought it to his face. Ryuu had texted him when it all started, right before it went from uncomfortable to a living hell, asking if he was sick or something. Noya had simply not denied the assumption, and told him he’d catch him later. Seeing as it had been a few days now, he expected Ryuu’s name to pop up on his phone, asking here is friend was. Instead, Noya’s eyes widened slightly at the name that was clearly not Ryuu’s.

It was Asahi.

Asahi had never messaged him before. He clicked open the message and stared at the screen before him.

< Are you okay? >

It started off a small chuckles and grew into a loud laugh. He could practically hear the other’s voice say those words. He could see his face, the way his brows crinkle together in worry and kindness that didn’t match the rest of his body. His tall body. His … strong … body ….

Noya buried his face into his pillow at the sudden imagery that started dancing into his head. He tried to think of something else, anything else, but to no avail. He ground his eyes shut and clenched his teeth as his hands moved on their own, abandoning the phone and diving down his pants instead. His right hand worked the front while his left hand felt the moisture drip down his thighs. He moved his hands with the images in his head, pumping in time with imagined thrusts, but it was not enough. Realizing at this point that his fingers were soaked, he finally caved and put his left hand to work, and wriggled wet fingers carefully inside him.

When he finally came for the first time since the beginning of the heat, a temporary relief washed over him and he sunk into the bed. The comforting bliss of post orgasm only lasted so long, for his eyes snapped open in horror a few minutes later.

He had just masturbated to the thought of his friend.

Noya let out a low groan of guilt and brought his hands to his face out of shame, only to remember that they were sticky and covered in bodily liquids.

“Urg! Arg! Fuck!” he muttered to himself and wiped his hands on his already soiled pants. He wiped off what little got on his face before plopping back down on to his bed. His heat was still there, he could feel it, but it was no where near as painful as it was before.

He couldn’t believe he had just done that.

Asahi! Of all people, he had to think of _Asahi_?! He was the most tame alpha - no, _human being_ \- in the whole fucking world. The kindest fool he knew, and he just jacked off to dirty thoughts about him.

“Fuck! Fuckitty fuck fuck!” he yelled into his pillow as to make sure his family didn’t over hear him.

Slowly, he rolled his face out of the pillow and looked over towards the abandoned phone, sitting silently on the edge of his bed.

He wasn’t sure how he was going to face Asahi now, not after this …


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Th-thank you very much for the kind comments! They're very encouraging! I'll try not to disappoint you all! ^^;;

It wasn’t until Sunday morning that Asahi’s phone went off, making him jump at the breakfast table fast enough to slam his knees into said table. He hissed in pain and rubbed his wronged knees for a moment before remembering the reason that they collided with the table in the first place. He fished his phone from his pocket and flipped it open, seeing a message from Noya waiting for him.

< I am okay now... thank you... >

Asahi stared at the message for quite some time, brows furrowed, before having to pocket his phone again to finish breakfast.

Why was Noya thanking him? Was it because he showed concern? It didn’t quite sound like him, though. The response ate away at his mind while he finished cleaning up his meal. He soon sat in the living room to stare at his phone once more, thinking of some sort of reply.

< Will you be at practice tomorrow? > Asahi typed quietly into his phone. Shortly after he pocketed his phone, it went off.

< You bet! See ya then! >

Asahi smiled to himself. Now that sounded more like Noya.

However, when Monday rolled around, much to Asahi’s distress, Noya was not quite himself.

Sure, he seemed normal enough. He greeted Kiyoko with grand enthusiasm as always. He and Ryuu getting too excited about simple things, and he and Hinata bonded over learning how to receive. All normal. Just one thing was off.

Noya wouldn’t look at him.

Perhaps Asahi was being stupid, or self centered, or just over thinking things, but Noya was always watching him. He knew it. How else would Noya rattle off a list of things Asahi did wrong at the end of every practice, only to then dump massive praise upon him. He would never shy away from Asahi’s gaze either, even when he caught him staring. But today, he wouldn’t look Asahi in the eye, not even once. It made Asahi’s stomach twist.

As a wrap up exercise, the coach had them divide in half, with one team lining up to practice serves, while the other lined up to practice receives on the opposing side of the net. Once everyone in the line has gone, they’d switch roles.

Asahi stood at the end of his line, consisting of Ennishota, Daichi, Kageyama, Chika, Noya, and himself. In front of him stood Noya, who kept his eyes on the court, watching his teammates and now and then shouting pointers. Not once did he look up at Asahi.

He shouldn’t have been so bothered by this, but for some reason, here he was, staring at Noya and waiting for the other to even acknowledge his presence. He tried to think of something to say, to force the other to share a conversation with him, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. For a brief second, Asahi contemplated releasing his scent, just enough to possibly get the boy’s attention, but decided against it. He didn’t want to impose himself on anyone. Besides, Daichi would probably call him out on it.

Accepting defeat, Asahi sighed to himself and closed his eyes so he’d stop boring holes into the libero’s head. He took a deep breath to clear his mind, only to have his eyes snap open again.

_What was that?_

He closed his eyes once more and took another deep breath through the nose. There was something … different. A new smell, one he couldn’t quite pinpoint. It definitely wasn’t coming from Daichi, that much was certain. Whatever this was, it wasn’t the bold richness of another alpha. It was almost … sweet? Not like candy or fruit, but more like a freshly baked sweet bread of some kind. He was finding it rather pleasant, actually.

His head reeled, suddenly trying to remember what everyone’s scent was. Daichi’s was warm and thick, while Tanaka’s was peppery and strong. Tsukishima’s was strong for a beta, and left a sizzle in one’s nose. Ennoshita and Kinoshita’s scent were very similar, like a cool breeze, while Narita’s smell had a subtle bite to it. Hinata’s was quiet and warm like sunshine, while Kageyama left a nearly metallic air about him. Sugawara and Yamagushi, the only omegas on the team, smelled more similar to fruit, with Yamaguchi’s leaving more of a tang in your nose and mouth. Which left Noya, who always smelled like …

Come to think of it, Asahi could never grasp a solid smell from Noya. There was just more of a change in the air, a difference in thickness, but never a really defined smell … Maybe that’s why Asahi never felt threatened or intimidated by Noya …

He breathed in the new sweet smell, taking in everything he could, and soon realized that it was coming from the being beside him.

Noya now smelled sweet.

 _Really_ sweet.

Asahi balled his fists and desperately tried to look anywhere else in the room.


	4. Chapter 4

No one seemed to notice any change. Not Daichi, not Suga, not Hinata, not even Ryuu who straight up bro-hugged him at the beginning of practice. Noya almost felt proud of himself.

After the heat had passed, he had spent the rest of his weekend desperately trying to learn to withhold his newly acquired scent. It was harder than he thought it would be, but eventually he got the hang of it with confirmation from his family. No one in school gave him a second glance, so his sudden change in class was a secret for the time being.

Though, Noya still felt fairly on edge during practice, trying to make sure to maintain himself as well as concentrate on the ball. Not to mention his other problem. His _big_ problem.

He couldn’t look at Asahi without reminding himself of what he did, so he spent the whole practice ignoring the giant, which was so much more difficult than he anticipated. He hadn’t realized until now just how much he would look at the other during practice. Every time he went to look at Asahi, he caught himself, and tried to distract himself with something else. It was even more stressful during spike/receive drills where he could see the other stand beside him out of the corner of his eye. He had to suppress every fiber of his being to not turn to the other and suddenly yell at the alpha that he was a fucking perverted omega who jacked off to the thought of him during his first heat ever.

Because he knew _that_ would go over so very well.

Still, as much as he would like to keep his newly acquired class a secret, Noya realized that he should probably tell _someone_ at _some_ point, especially since he was now an omega, which has the potential to be dangerous. Who knows when his next heat might start. With his luck, it could happen during the middle of practice and it’s probably best if at least one person knew the situation in advance to prevent anything … bad.

He could tell coach Ukai, though he was a bit afraid the couch would change his views about him, not let him play as much, which would be the end of the world! Okay, Ukai was out. There was always Takeda Sensei, though Noya wasn’t very keen of the idea of the teacher suddenly bogging him down with textbook information on omegas, daily lectures and check-ups, not to mention the extreme likelihood that he would tell Ukai right away about his new class, which is a no go. He considered Ryuu for a while, but his friend’s alpha status made him a bit nervous. Noya wasn’t sure if just going up to him and saying, “Hey, I’m an Omega now, so that’s a thing,” would be taken as some sort of invite. It’s not that he didn’t trust Ryuu or anything, but he wasn’t sure if he’d really want to do those kind of _things_ with him…

At the thought, he couldn’t stop himself from giving a low glance to the ace, settling for at least a sight of the other’s legs since he couldn’t yet bring himself to look him in the eye. It was then Noya saw that the older boy had his fists clenched rather tightly, to the point where his knuckles were turning white.

Noya caved. He finally looked up at Asahi.

His jaw was clenched tight while he looked away from everything and everyone. Noya couldn’t tell exactly where or what he was looking at, because his eyes kept darting around slightly, as thought trying and failing to lock onto a target. It almost looked like he was … scared?

“Noya! Your turn!”

The libero jumped slightly and looked through the net to see Suga holding the ball, waiting for Noya to get ready to receive his serve.

Hm. Suga. He was an omega, right? Maybe Noya could talk to him about his new status. He wouldn’t tell anyone.

Noya gave one last glance at Asahi, before turning to yell, “Alright! Hit me with your best shot, Suga!”

His other problem will have to wait.

 

* * *

  

“Hey, Suga!” Noya called out to the senior, who stopped his advance towards the exit. The rest of their class continued onwards through the doors to head to the changing room, all talking amongst themselves. “Can I talk to you for a bit?”

He had hoped he hadn’t sounded too nervous or needy. Either way, Suga walked towards him looking pleasant as ever.

“Sure thing,” he smiled. He then paused and waited until the last member was out of the room. The only other people left were the manager and advisor, who were having their own conversation far enough away they wouldn’t hear anything. “What do you wish to talk about?”

“Um … well,” Noya searched for words as he rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn’t really thought this through. Then again, when had that ever been his style? “I guess I need some advise … but you can’t tell anyone thought!” he quickly added.

“Of course.”

“I mean it! Not Daichi, not Takeda, not Ukai. _No one_!”

Suga raised an eyebrow. “Noya, you’re making me a bit worried. Is there something wrong?”

“No! No. It’s just …” he cleared his throat awkwardly. Better just get it over with. _Quick like a bandaid, quick like a bandaid_. “I’m an omega now and I just want some advice.”

That took Suga a second to comprehend, partially due to the speed at which the words tumbled out of Noya’s mouth. Noya could physically see the other blink several times before reeling back slightly in surprise. The surprise was quickly replaced with furrowed brows in thought.

“But I thought you were a beta?”

“Yeah, well, join the club,” he joked, though it came out weaker than he would have liked. “Apparently I’m not. Learned that tidbit this weekend.”

The other’s eyebrows raised. “Oooh,” he mused in realization. “That explains why you were gone for a few days. You were in heat.”

Hearing someone actually say the words made his insides flinch. That was definitely something he was going to have to get used to, when he finally _did_ tell others … whenever that would be. For now, Noya merely looked down at the remark and rubbed his nose. The other caught his small action.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Suga said with a smile. “It’s a natural process all omegas go through. Both Yamaguchi and I go through the same thing every so often, so you’re not alone.”

He had already known that, but hearing Suga say it made Noya feel better somehow. “Right,” he chuckled. “It’s just weird to accept it so … _suddenly_. I mean, everyone thought I was a beta, hell _I_ thought I was a beta, and now I have to tell them all that I’m actually an omega? I’m not sure I’m up to it yet … but no one else has noticed so far, so that helps…”

Suga thought about this for a moment, tilting his head to the side slightly. “Well, honestly, that’s not too surprising.”

Noya subconsciously mimic the other’s head tilt. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Suga played with his chin as he thought aloud. “Betas aren’t really known for being able to catch scents very easily. They can tell when an omega is in heat, or when an alpha is being territorial, but if it’s not an extreme situation like those, most betas won’t register another’s scent.”

Oh. Noya hadn’t thought about that. Well, that explained over half the team then.

“Omegas are only slightly better, though their noses tend to be more drawn to the scents of alphas as opposed to betas or other omegas, especially those who are hiding their scent, such as you.”

Yeah, okay. There’s two more. That would also explain why Suga was so surprised by Noya’s reveal of new status. Apparently, he was better at hiding it than he thought.

“As for alphas, they have the best noses out of all of us, and can usually identify anyone’s class by their smell alone, whether it is suppressed or not.” That’s where Noya’s stomach sunk.

“So the alphas all know?!” he blurted out, more to himself than at Suga. _Oh no. If the alphas already know, that means that the_ coach _already knows, which means -_

Suga raised a hand, halting the impending rant within Noya’s head. “Not necessarily,” he corrected. Noya shot him a confused look as he then began counting off on his fingers. “Ukai and Daichi may both be alphas, but both of them tend to not notice, or perhaps care about scents. They sort of identify that whatever it is, it’s not threatening or important at the time, then quickly push it out of their mind. Tanaka, on the other hand, leaks his own scent often enough that he can’t readily smell others unless their at their extremes. He’s similar to a beta in that sense.”

Noya tried to absorb all that was just said. Okay, two alphas _might_ have noticed, the two most influential over his ability to play the game or not, and neither one of them have brought it up, so that must mean he’s in the clear! Oh glorious day! As for Tanaka, if Suga said was true, the dense fool will probably never notice until he’s been flat out told, which … he’ll get to … eventually…

“As for Asahi,” Suga dragged out softly, slowly looking down and away.

The younger boy’s stomach tightened slightly.

“What?” he asked, though he was afraid of the answer.

“He’s very … _keen_ when it comes to scents. Most likely due to how self conscious he is of his own. By accident, I once got him to confess to me that he could identify everyone on the team by scent alone. Not only that, but he can always tell when I’ll be close to heat, for he’s asked me if he needed to get my homework for me later. He’s oddly perceptive in that regard, so it could entirely be possible that he already knows…”

Fingernails dug into Noya’s palms. He hadn’t even realized he had clenched his fists. Out of all the people on the team, for some reason it shook him the most to think that Asahi already knew he was an omega. Lower class. Inferior. The earlier concern for his coach had flown out the window, as it didn’t compare to this near ache he was suddenly grasped in. Noya couldn’t even explain why, but this news felt as though it could crush him.

Suga must have seen the fear in his eyes, because he added as kindly as possible, “I wouldn’t worry, though. Asahi wouldn’t tell anyone.”

Noya said nothing.

“Hey,” the older boy put his hands on Noya’s shoulders, shaking him lightly until Noya looked him in the eye, “It’s alright. Nothing’s changed. No one is going to look at you differently. You’re still Noya, our libero, Karasuno’s Guardian Deity, yes?”

The way Suga looked him was soft, but there was no additional pity that Noya anticipated. He looked at him the same way he had before. Noya grinned, despite himself.

“You bet.”

“Good,” Suga smiled and ruffled Noya’s hair. “But, if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask me.”

“Thanks.”

Suga nodded and began to walk away when Noya suddenly thought of something.

“Hey! Can I ask you one more thing?”

Suga stopped. “Sure. What is it?”

“How do you deal with a heat?”

That was the first time Suga blushed the whole conversation.


	5. Chapter 5

Asahi stared through the chalkboard upfront, copying mindlessly what scribbles the teacher had written on the board as they rambled on. He wasn’t paying attention to what he was writing, so for all he knew, he could be writing complete gibberish, but at the moment, it was not his greatest concern.

His mind was still tied to the sweet scent that now came from his friend, the boy who always had his back whenever they played. It lingered in his nose as tried to sleep, as he ate breakfast that morning, and even now, surrounded by several others with their own unique smells and sounds. They all suddenly seemed very distant and insignificant in comparison to Noya’s new scent.

The sweet scent of an omega.

Granted, he’s smelled omega’s before, hell there was at least three in his very classroom. There was also Suga, whom he’s known for years, and that freshman Yamaguchi. But this one, this smell, seemed to be slightly different from all the others, even if it did belong to an omega. Specifically the most unseemly omega he’s ever known.

The more Asahi thought about it, the more it was almost funny. Noya didn’t match the omega tropes in the slightest, though if he was being honest with himself, neither did Asahi. He was so bold, so rambunctious, Asahi wouldn’t be surprised if he punched anyone who’d try to mate with him right in the face. While the thought made Asahi smile to himself in class, it also made him worry.

The fact that Noya was a newly presented omega made him think back to when Suga was still getting used to his change in class. Back then, he was awkward about it, and wouldn’t bring it up, so Daichi and Asahi wouldn’t ask about it. However, it was harder to ignore when he’d go into heat.

As omegas get older, they are more able to sense when a heat was approaching and take precautionary measures to deal with it, and avoid destructive situations. Unfortunately, when they’re still new, to them a heat can start at any time without warning.

For example, in the middle of math class.

That was the first and one of the few times Asahi smelled an omega in heat, and same could be said for many of his classmates at the time. The overpowering smell that suddenly burst forth from Suga that day sent betas panting and newly presented alphas hurdling desks trying to get to him. Thankfully, the teacher was quick enough to grab Suga and shield him from the others before escorting him out the room where he was taken to the nurse to have his parents come get him.

Afterwards, Daichi was ashamed of his own actions for weeks. Daichi was among the many alphas in the room that nearly ripped each other to shreds in order to acquire the omega in heat. The only reason he didn’t get to Suga even though he had been sitting the closest was because of Asahi, who had enough sense at the time to hold the other back. While all the "normal" alphas wanted nothing more than to jump Suga, all Asahi could do was stare in horror and sadness at the face Suga was making in his chair as well as when he left the room.

It was flushed and nearly pained, but more importantly, _he was crying_.

When Suga returned the following week, Daichi apologized profusely. Suga brushed it off, saying that it was alright, though thanked Asahi when they were alone, and that he was glad to have friends like him. Time went on and Suga said that he was fine, but Asahi could tell that Suga had been effected by the incident. He was skittish around others for _months_ , jumping at sudden movements or when someone touched his arm. It took several heat cycles to pass before Suga didn’t seem to fear any other human around him that wasn’t an omega.

Now Noya would be facing the same risks, the same fears, and he’d be doing so alone.

The bell rang, but Asahi didn’t really notice until he saw his classmates hastily shove their notebooks and pencils into their desks and bustle out of the room. Asahi blinked and did the same, being one of the last to leave the room to go fetch his own lunch.

Going down the hallway, he _heard_ Tanaka before seeing him and Daichi talking against the wall. Asahi walked past them, ignoring Tanaka’s flare ups as he spoke wildly about something, for he was still engrossed in thought.

Noya always had Tanaka, he supposed, seeing as the two always hung out together. However, the idea of him being Noya’s only safety net didn’t ease his worries. Tanaka was a good guy, don’t get him wrong, though he was known to be impulsive. No doubt if he was accidentally in the presence of an omega suddenly going into heat, restraint wouldn’t exactly be the first thing to cross his mind… Then again, Asahi wasn’t even sure they were in the same class, so any chance of Tanaka protecting Noya from others slimmed down further.

Asahi rubbed his neck. He was thinking about this way too much. It doesn’t even matter, does it? Noya can take care of himself. Noya is still Noya, even if he’s now an omega. There was nothing to worry about, so he should just stop thinking about this, stop thinking about _him_.

But **_by god_** , he suddenly smelled so good.


	6. Chapter 6

Noya stood in the breezeway, holding his lunch in one hand and staring across the lawn, eyes falling onto the back of the ace of Karasuno. The senior was alone, which only half surprised Noya. If what Suga said about Asahi was true, it meant that he must be constantly surrounded by specific smells all the time. It would make sense for the alpha to find solace outside, away from noises and smells of others.

He had thought a lot about what Suga had told him the other day. Their conversation about heats was awkward, but Suga tried his best all the while his face turned more red with each solution.

When in heat, some do nothing, and just simply wait it out (which was extremely painful, Noya recalled). Others masturbated, using just their hands or even toys for those who really need additional stimulation. Then there was always the option of mating.

Typically, sex was the easiest, quickest, and most natural way to deal with a heat. Suga suggested if he were to take this route, it would be best to do it with a chosen mate, if not a bonded partner. There were some who took any offers that were made during their heat, but they both agreed that neither of them liked the idea of being open doors for any alphas around.

When Noya asked Suga what he usually did, Suga nearly choked before he brushed it aside heavily, saying that that was a little too personal to discuss. Noya wondered if that meant Suga had a mate or not, but he decided not to push it and left it at that.

Noya drummed his fingers at his side and continued staring. His own stupid guilt still ate away at him while he looked upon the other boy, as well as a newer nervousness that seemed to have cozy itself beside his guilt inside his stomach. He wondered how the other boy would look at him now, seeing as how he’s now become … inferior.

Because of that, he hadn’t been able to face Asahi yet, which was foolish of him, and he knew it. If this kept up, it would mess up practice, which would mess up a match, which would mess up any chance of going to the finals. All that meant that Noya was going to have to bite the bullet, look his friend in the face, and treat everything as though nothing’s changed.

He nodded to himself in determination and abandoned the breezeway, beelining towards Asahi. For some reason, he found himself trying to approach as quietly as possible, just incase he got cold feet perhaps. Either way, it didn’t matter, for as soon as he got within 10 feet, the other boy turned around to look at him, making Noya stop in his tracks.

_How did he-? Oh right. Smell, DUH._

The older boy blinked. “Noya,” he said, almost surprised.

Noya quickly searched the other’s face. There was so disgust, annoyance, or anything of the sort. Actually, his face seemed rather blank, maybe taken off guard or unsure how to feel. Whatever the reason, Noya couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

“What’s up!” he greeted loudly as ever, and plopped down next to the giant. “Feeling better today?”

Asahi closed his eyes for a brief second, and opened them again. He then blinked rapidly as his usual semi-flustered face came about. “W-wait, shouldn’t I be asking _you_? You were gone three days. Are you feeling back to normal?”

“You know me!” Noya thumped his chest. “Can’t bring me down that easily.”

“Of course,” he laughed nervously, then returned to his lunch that he had ignored when Noya appeared.

Noya waited a second. A very impatient second. “Asahi! You didn’t answer the question. Pay attention!”

“Oh! S-sorry,” the older said, scratching his face. “Um, what did you ask again?”

“I said ‘feeling better today?’” He furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean?”

“At practice, you seemed tense. At the end, anyway,” Noya said. He added the last part because _technically_ he didn’t look over at Asahi until then. For all he knew, Asahi could have been tense the whole game and he hadn’t see it.

The libero watched the other think about this, then his eyes widen in realization before looking down and away. “O-oh! Th-that. It was nothing. Just-just thinking of stuff.”

Noya waited, letting the other eat some of his lunch and taking the opportunity to quickly devour his own. He was done before Asahi was. He became twitchy, curious as to what the boy had been thinking about to get that kind of look on his face. He wanted to ask, however, there was a more pressing question on Noya’s mind. When Asahi finally finished his own meal, Noya attacked.

“You already know, don’t you?”

Asahi turned and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“That I’m … you know …” Noya scratched his head and looked around, suddenly nervous. “That I’m … different now …”

“… you mean that you’re an omega now, right?”

_Ah, so blunt_. “Y-yeah.”

“Yeah, I know,” he answered softly, and looked out across the lawn.

Silence stretched between them, as if neither one of them knew what to say next. Unsure what to do, Noya watched Asahi and waited. The other closed his eyes, and Noya realized that he was taking long, slow breathes through the nose.

The question just fell out.

“What do I smell like?”

Asahi nearly jumped out of his skin, and his face flushed just as rapidly. “W-w-what?”

“Well, Suga said that you could tell everyone apart by their scent…” Noya said cautiously, now curious if he had asked the wrong kind of question, judging by the other’s reaction.

“I… I see…” he mumbled. His face was still red.

“If you don’t wanna say, I guess that’s fine and all,” said Noya.

Asahi was quiet for a moment, then spoke without looking at him.

“Bread.”

“What?”

Noya swore he saw a smile flash on the other’s face before he buried his jaw into crooks of his arms that laid folded atop his knees.

“You smell like sweet bread.”


	7. Chapter 7

Days passed, and no one else seemed to notice the change in Noya, just the way Noya wanted it.

After their talk on the lawn, Noya had asked Asahi not to tell anyone else of his newly acquired class. The only other person that knew (that he knew of) was Suga, and the libero said that he’d like to keep it that way, at least for the time being. Asahi wasn’t really sure he approved, but he wouldn’t go against the new omega’s wishes.

Because of this, he made no mention of Noya to Daichi when the two had free period together.

Usually, all three of the seniors would “study” together during free period, however their standard group of three was cut down to two. Suga was absent. So, the two worked on their homework in silence, though Daichi seemed distracted. All the while filling out his homework, he worried his club jacket collar between his thumb and fingers. Asahi found himself staring, and tried to refocus on his homework with a small head shake and a clearing breath.

He smelled Suga.

Asahi instinctively looked around. He wasn’t there, for fairly obvious reasons, but there was the faintest smell of him somehow. The alpha looked around some more and his eyes fell upon Daichi’s hand once again, still rubbing and pulling at fabric around his neck. It was then Asahi noticed that the other’s jacket seemed a tad small on him, and maybe a bit better well kept. Daichi practically lived in his club gear, and it showed, but the jacket he wore at the moment was too nice to be _his_ jacket.

“Is that Suga’s?”

Daichi froze. Both his fingers on the jacket and the ones holding his pencil tensed slightly before Daichi responded with a measly, “Hm?”

“That jacket,” Asahi questioned, “Is it Suga’s?”

Jaw clench. “What makes you ask?”

“Nothing, I just … I thought it smelled like him.”

There was no verbal answer, but the fingers on the collar started to move again, gripping it tightly before tugging it closer to his neck.

So Asahi was right. It _was_ Suga’s jacket. It was weird for him to be wearing Suga’s and not his own though, unless Suga had _his_ at the moment.

But Suga was at home.

In heat.

With an alpha’s jacket.

The realization hit Asahi so hard he almost fell out of his chair. _Holy sh - Does that mean they’re mating? Are they_ bonded _? How long has this been going on? How has he never noticed before?! Why hadn’t they_ told _him?!_ Asahi wanted to blurt out every questions that scrolled through his mind, but bit his tongue at the sight of Daichi’s face.

He looked so … uncomfortable. Nervous, maybe, or worried. Unsure of what to do. Honestly, it was like Asahi was looking at himself as opposed to the usual Daichi. If it was him, he wouldn’t want to be bombarded with personal questions out of the blue, particularly in the library where other students were in ear shot. Besides, judging by how unconfident the captain looked at that very moment, it could be entirely possible that Daichi didn’t know the any of the answers.

“… Did you go and visit him last night?”

Daichi looked up finally. “What?”

“To drop of his homework.”

“Oh,” he said, shoulders relaxing a hair, “Yeah. I dropped it off on my way home.”

Asahi nodded. “You doing the same tonight then?”

“… yeah.”

“If that’s the case,” he said, itching his face nervously, “I can close up the gym tonight for you, so you can head out early. It’ll probably be better for Suga anyway…”

Daichi stared in disbelief for quite sometime, perhaps trying to decide just how much Asahi figured out on his own. He visibly searched for words and finally responded with a quiet, “Thank you,” before returning to his homework.

“Don’t mention it.”

 

* * *

 

Practice went by swiftly, no problems outside of the regular Kageyama scolding Hinata for doing something poorly, and Daichi telling Tanaka to keep his shirt on. When it was getting close to the end, Asahi saw Daichi excuse himself to the adults and leave early, looking his way only once to flash a brief apologetic look. Asahi returned it with a small smile and continued practice with the others until Coach Ukai blew the whistle, signaling the end.

“Clean up!” he boomed, clapping his hands for emphasis.

“Good work everyone!” added Takeda, clapping as well, though his was more of a hushed applause.

Kiyoko stored the scoreboard along with Takeda while the first years ran around with the ball buggy tossing the mass amount of scattered volleyballs into said buggy before putting it away. All the seconds years took down the net and rolled the posts into the storage room, save for Noya who was helping Asahi roll up the net. He had told the underclassman that it was fine, and that he could do it on his own, but Noya insisted. While they rolled, everyone quickly ditched the gear and ran off to the changing room, leaving Noya and Asahi.

“Daichi said you’re locking up?” asked Ukai with folded arms when the two finished and approached the storage room.

“Yes,” Asahi confirmed simply.

For a moment, it seemed like Ukai was almost waiting for an explanation as to why, which Asahi was in no way prepared to say. However, the question never came, but instead he tossed Takeda’s keys at him. Asahi barely caught them before they hit him in the face. “See you tomorrow,” he said and left the building, Takeda on his heels.

“Wonder why Daichi had to leave early,” hummed Noya behind him as they entered the poorly lit storage room. It was more of a glorified closet than anything.

Asahi didn’t respond, but instead focused on dropping the large mass of netting into the cradle tucked away in the corner. He heard Noya huff and move the buggy the newbies left in the middle of the room to its designated spot against the far wall, beside the poles.

“Hey!” he exclaimed excitedly, so Asahi turned to the shorter boy. “Wanna race brooms?”

Asahi half laughed. “Right now?”

“Let’s do it!” he roared and grabbed two brooms from the wall. He pushed one into his friend’s hand and darted out into the gymnasium. “I get this corner, and you get that one!” he said pointing across the room.

“Alright, alright, wait up.” Asahi decided not to argue, and took his place on the other side of the gym. He never really got a lot of chances to hang out with the libero, so he wouldn’t turn down an odd “game” if Noya was really up to playing one.

“Ready?” he called loudly, stretching the word out as long as possible before yelling, “GO!”

What started as a line race slowly turned more into a kind of caucus race, with the boys dashing about in every which direction, bumping brooms on accident now and then and laughing as they ran. When they were out of breath, they pushed what little dirt they had actually managed to collect together and threw it away and placed the brooms back in storage before locking the door to the room, as well as the gymnasium.

“And the victor is,” Noya drum rolled while Asahi checked the lock, “The grand storm, the unstoppable force, the one, the only, Nishinoya!” He mimicked the sound of a roaring crowd and whooped into the air, leaving Asahi to shake his head.

“You can’t win a game that has no rules,” Asahi pointed out.

“Sure you can! I covered way more ground than you!”

“How can you even measure that? We were all over the place.”

“You might have longer legs, but I can move way faster than you, Asahi. You can’t match me for speed.”

Asahi just laughed as they walked up the steps and into the changing room. With their little game, everyone was long gone, leaving only two sets of belongings in the room. They changed with little talking, mainly Noya rattling off about a movie he and Tanaka saw recently. Big explosions, hot babes, the usual. Though, now that they were alone, and very tired and sweaty, Asahi was having trouble concentrating on the words Noya was saying. He was more distracted by the warm sweet air around him.

While at practice, it was easier to zone it out, especially when surrounded by several teammates to help muddle scents. Though, when it was just Nishinoya beside him, it was more apparent, and much harder to ignore. It was like bathing in it. He knew he’d have to leave at some point, but for now, it was all he wanted to be surrounded by.

“Asahi, pay attention!”

“Hm?” The alpha looked up from tying his shoes to see Noya facing him, fully dressed with fists on his hips.

“I was asking you something and you weren’t listening. Pay attention!”

“Oh. Sorry,” Asahi cleared his throat awkwardly. “Um, what were you saying?”

“I asked if you remembered our conversation last week?”

Asahi sat up properly to give the other his complete attention, for the other looked very serious all of a sudden. They hadn’t brought up their little talk since it had happened, most likely due to the fact that Noya still didn’t want anyone to know that he was not a beta after all but instead an omega. Noya could have been trying to ignore it, hoping somehow the “problem” would just go away, but Asahi knew better. Truth be told, Asahi wouldn’t be surprised if he had thought more about it than Noya had. He couldn’t help but feel uneasy whenever he saw Noya in large crowded areas. He just … couldn’t handle the idea of the other being…

“Yeah,” he finally answered, cutting off his own thoughts. He didn’t want to walk down that trail right now.

“I’ve … been wanting to ask you something about that.”

“Oh?”

“You know, you said that I…” Noya cleared his throat lightly and looked a tad embarrassed. “That I smell like bread.”

“Oh,” Asahi muttered, feeling his own face grow red. That had probably been a very lame thing to say to someone. His own embarrassment caused him to slump his shoulders. “Right.”

“Anyway, I was thinking about it,” Noya scratched his head but his stare never wavered, “and I was just wondering, well, what you smell like.”

Asahi sat up straighter. “…what?”

“C’mon,” Noya said, beginning to talk animatedly with his hands. “You said everyone has their own smell, and I’ve never really been able to smell anyone very well. Well, except for Ryuu, but everyone’s smelled him. Hell, I think they’ve smelled him two towns over at this point. And I guess Daichi and Ukai, but only when they’re angry, so that’s kinda a different story all together. But my point is that … well, I don’t really know what _you_ smell like, if your scent is even any different from the others. Not that I can really tell that much, but yeah.”

Their eye contact was finally broken when Asahi looked down towards Noya’s shoes. “It’s…” Asahi couldn’t think of any words. He honestly could never tack a specific description to his own scent, not that he released it that often to begin with. Not even Suga and Daichi had ever gotten much of a chance to smell him. Daichi only caught his scent a small handful of times when they were younger and Asahi let it slip. As for Suga, he tried to keep it in wraps as much as possible, especially since he was an omega. “I can’t really say,” Asahi ended up replying.

Noya looked sorely disappointed in that answer.

“Then show me.”

The giant shot up from the bench and looked down at Noya with bewilderment. “What?!”

“Show me! Release it or whatever you alphas do.”

“I-I-I can’t,” Asahi stumbled and went for the door, but Noya blocked him.

“Why?” he demanded. He almost looked hurt by the rejection.

“I just… you’re … Noya, you’re an omega now.”

“So?”

“It’s … kinda different now.”

That one seemed to sting, judging by the small flinch in Noya’s face right around the eyes. Asahi felt guilty, but still.

“Noya, I should-” Asahi reached for the door once more, but Noya pressed his whole weight against it, staring up at him.

“Please.”

His voice was so small for Noya, it took Asahi by surprised. It made his stomach twist as he continued to talk.

“I’m no different,” he said. It nearly sounded like a plea. “Don’t treat me like I’m stupid, or pathetic, or weak. Not you.”

Asahi’s insides ached, like some creature was clawing at them when he looked down at Noya, who glared back, seething with anger and hurt. He wanted to explain that he’d never connect any of those words with the libero, that he wasn’t trying to protect him. Well, he _was_ trying to protect him somewhat, but who he was mainly trying to protect was _himself_. His own sanity. It was difficult enough to still be swimming in the omega’s smell, but now Noya wanted reciprocate? The boy didn’t seem to understand exactly what he was asking the alpha to do, but he wouldn't listen to Asahi’s protests.

“Noya, I-”

“Please!”

“You don’t und-”

“Asahi!”

The smaller wouldn’t budge.

A small thread of sanity snapped within him.

_Fine_.

Noya jumped when Asahi smacked a hand against the door behind him and leaned to look down over Noya, who despite looking intimidated, still held his ground. They were close, close enough where Asahi could see all the colors in Noya’s eyes and hear Noya swallow.

So he released his scent.

He watched the other let out a strained breath as the color of his eyes were quickly blocked out by expanding pupils. It didn’t take long for his knees to give out and send him sliding down the door. Asahi heard the faintest whimper come from him when he finally hit the floor, unable to break eye contact with the alpha above him. His breaths were shaky, and his mouth kept twitching as though he wanted to speak but couldn’t. All that would come out were small noises. He looked so … he sounded so …

Asahi abruptly stopped, hiding his scent again as he backed away from the door, realizing that his mouth was so dry, he couldn’t swallow. Noya, on the other hand, was remembering how to breathe normally as he tried to collect himself on the floor. His eyes were wide and remained fixated upon Asahi, who couldn’t figure out if it was out of surprise or worse, _fear_.

“N-noya, I’m-”

But he didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. Noya had grabbed the door handle and pulled himself up as he opened the door, quickly disappearing out of the room. Asahi was left standing there, staring at an open door and hearing rushed steps slowly fade away with distance. After some time of standing alone in silence, his feet carried him to a bench and sat down, putting his head in his hands and gradually digging his fingers into his scalp until it hurt.

He felt low. Disgusting. He couldn’t believe he just did that. That he even thought those thoughts when he looked at Noya being put into that state, that position, that …

“Shit!” he cursed aloud and slammed a blind fist into the shelving behind him. He instantly regretted that decision and cradled his now sore hand with his other one.

He was regretting a lot of things at the moment.


	8. Chapter 8

Noya couldn’t remember the last time he ran home so fast.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, he leaned against it as he tried to catch his breath, holding his sides hoping the pain would stop soon. He didn’t pause there long, though, for he heard his mother in the kitchen.

“Welcome home!” she called out from the other room. He could feel himself panicking as her steps started coming his way. “How was practi-“

“Fine! Not much happened! Gotta shower!” he spat out and bolted down the hallway, away from his mother as fast as he could possibly move with weak legs. He ducked into his room for only a moment to grab a change of clothing before locking himself in the bathroom.

His legs had finally had enough and he fell to the floor with a soft thud.

_What the hell happened?_

He wrapped his arms around himself tightly, remembering that he was near quaking only a short time ago. It was all so sudden, and he couldn’t understand it. Asahi had just been standing there, then his eyes suddenly changed and Noya’s lungs burned, unable to breathe properly. His body got hot and weak, and embarrassingly, he kind of got erect. It was almost like he had gone back into heat right out of the blue.

Honestly, he had felt so helpless.

Noya dragged himself off the ground and stripped as he made his way to the shower. It was one of the few times he was glad their shower had rails on the inside, for he used them to remain standing as the water poured over him so much colder than his skin.

Was that kind of thing _supposed_ to happen? His body never reacted like that when Ryuu and him hung out this past week. The most that Noya could recall was that his nose would somewhat burn and his actions would falter just slightly before Ryuu’s scent disappeared again, and everything would go back to normal. Just a mere fault, a small wobble in his system, not anything like what just happened with Asahi. The look on the other’s face wasn’t helping the situation either.

When Noya fled the changing room, he could have sworn Asahi looked upset, broken somehow. But before that, right before that, when Noya could only sink to the floor and stare up at the alpha, he had a look on his face that Noya had never seen before. It was so intense that it alone could have paralyzed him, without the vast scent that washed over him.

The boy gave up and ended up sitting on the shower floor as he cleaned himself, legs still too unstable to hold him up straight. By the time he turned off the water, he was able to stand by himself again as he put on his fresh clothes. Knowing his mother would scold him otherwise, he picked up his discarded clothes from earlier. He did a quick sniff check to see if his uniform could last him another day or if he had to wash it tonight.

He felt his body tingle slightly at the scent, and he looked up in the mirror to see his pupils dilate in response.

_It’s…_

He held it up to his nose again and inhaled.

It was Asahi. His uniform smelled like the scent Asahi released earlier, though nowhere near as powerful. It was barely present at all, really, but it was still there. He buried his face in the fabric and continued to breathe, taking in as much as he could. It was warm and welcoming. It reminded him of his grandmother’s old wood furnace.

Noya hadn’t realized he cuddling into his clothes until his mother knocked at the door, causing him to jump at the realization.

“Yuu?”

He opened the door to see his mother looking back at him with a concerned look on her face.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he laughed, holding his clothes behind him. “Worked up quite the sweat at practice. Thought I should clean up ASAP.”

His mother didn’t look very convinced. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yup!”

“Nothing happened?”

“No?”

“Was that a question or an answer?”

“An answer.”

She brought a hand to his face to brush away wet hair that drooped around his eyes, then rested her hand against the back of his head. “You can always tell me if anything, you know that right?”

His mouth stretched slightly. “I know.”

She patted his head. “Supper will be ready in fifteen. Put your clothes away and help set the table.”

“Right, Mom!”

She left down the hallway as Noya went the opposite direction, going back into his room and closing the door behind him. He looked back down at his clothes in his arms and stared for a moment before slowly sniffing them again, holding them closer to him.

Perhaps … he could wear his backup uniform tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

The libero’s original plan for lunch was to check up on Asahi, but that plan was thrown out the window when Ryuu found him right away and they headed to their usual bench, which was on the opposite lawn of where the ace usually sat. He preferred the quieter of lawns while the two rascals chose the one with more traffic to watch the girls go by as they talked about video games, movies, and other random things.

While Ryuu talked, Noya only half listened, mind still thinking about yesterday’s events. He was still stuck on Asahi’s face before he ran out of embarrassment. He shouldn’t have panicked like that, Noya knew it, because he had a feeling that Asahi was probably _more_ freaked out about the incident than Noya was, who was still tight stomached about the whole ordeal.

It was his fault anyway. He instigated … whatever the hell happened. If he apologized, they could just put the whole thing behind them and move on. Though despite himself, despite all sane strands of logic within him, at the risk of feeling helpless once more, Noya wanted to smell Asahi again.

Ryuu punched him dead in the shoulder.

“Ah!” Noya yelped at the unexpected punch.

“Bell rang,” his friend said, looking at him with some concern. “Didn’t you hear it?”

“Oh, my bad,” he said, jumping down from his perch atop the back of the bench.

“You okay?” Ryuu raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Just didn’t get much sleep last night,” Noya waved it off, then flexed a bicep, giving it a pat. “But that won’t stop me! I’ll still stop every ball that comes at me during practice!”

Ryuu gave a bark of laughter. “Oooooh, that feels like a challenge!”

“You’re on, skinhead! But first, a race back to class! Ready? GO!”

Noya laughed as he got a head start, his friend quickly on his tail. They both landed through the door at the same time, so they declared a draw before saying goodbye and going their separate ways to their own classrooms. With his brief distraction gone, Noya’s mind fell back to Asahi, and it stayed there until school was over and he found himself walking up the steps to the changing room.

“Holy crap!” came Hinata’s voice floating through the open door. “What happened to the shelf?!”

Noya straightened and ran up the rest of the stairs and into the room, where he found all four of the first years hovering near the doorway.

“What could have caused that?” he heard Yamaguchi ask quietly to Tsukishima, who gave a shrug in response.

The two moved out of the way, allowing Noya to see what the others were staring at.

One of the lower middle shelves was dented in, enough to make the shelf bow in the middle. The shelves weren’t made of the thickest of metal, just cheap slabs, but still. Noya clenched his jaw and fists at the sight, as though it was some sort of bad omen.

“Just pick a different spot, dumbass,” Kageyama remarked, throwing his own bag onto a different shelf.

Hinata pouted before following the taller’s lead, pitching his own bag onto the same shelf as him and begin changing.

Noya walked right in between them, tossing his bag onto the dent, in an odd attempt to cover it up. Out of sight, out of mind.

Hinata greeted him, along with Kageyama, and soon Ryuu and the other second years filed in. No third years came in, so Noya went ahead as soon as he was done changing to see if perhaps they had gotten there early. However, when he got down to the gym, there were only two upperclassmen standing there, having what looked like a fairly serious conversation. Daichi’s hand was on Suga’s forearm while he looked at the other with a knitted brow, and they were talking low, so Noya couldn’t understand what they were saying. Their conversation immediately came to a halt when Daichi looked up and spotted him, quickly letting go of Suga’s arm.

Suga turned around. “Oh! Hello, Noya,” he greeted warmly.

“Hey, welcome back,” he responded, and Suga gave a head tilt at the pleasantry. Noya gave a glance around. “Where’s Asahi?”

“He can’t play today,” Daichi answered. Judging by his face, he didn’t seem very pleased with the fact.

Noya clenched his fists again. “What?! Why?!” _Was he avoiding me?_

The captain looked down and away, and said lowly, “He hurt his hand.”

The second year stared at him for a moment in confusion as to how and when, but then the shelf in the club room suddenly floated in his mind and he visibly reeled back in realization.

Before the three could talk more, the rest of the team came filtering in, talking amongst themselves, all the while Noya stared at Daichi in mild horror. Not only was he confirmed of his hunch that Asahi was upset about yesterday, but it was enough for the other to make an impressive dent in metal furniture and injure himself in the process.

And it was all his fault.

“Noya,” Suga said quietly while Daichi turned his attention to the newcomers. “I’m sure he’s-”

“Can we talk?” Noya spit out rapidly, staring Suga right in the eye.

“Uh,” Suga babbled for a moment, taken aback. “R-right now?”

“Yes.”

“Um, of course,” he started, but Noya was already walking out of the room. “Ah! Wait up!”

The two traveled in tandem back to the club room, where Noya shut the door behind them. Suga turned to look at his teammate with worry as the younger pressed himself against the door, exactly how he was the day before. Suga stood more to his left than in the middle of the room, like Asahi had been.

“Noya, what’s wrong?”

He put a hand to his face as he replayed the events in his head. “Suga?”

“Yes?”

“What’s supposed to happen when you smell an alpha?”

Suga’s eyes widened slightly. “A lot - a lot of things can … Noya, what happened?”

“I …” he sighed and scrunched his eyes closed. “It’s all my fault.”

“What was?”

“I made Asahi reveal his scent to me.”

There was no response, so Noya opened his eyes so he could see Suga stand in shock. “Oh my god, did- did he hurt you or-”

“No!” Noya quickly cut him off. “No, no, he didn’t hurt me. C’mon, this is Asahi we’re talking about.”

The upperclassman relaxed a bit, but his face was still strained. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just … I’m just confused is all…”

Suga put a hand on his shoulder and he finally pushed away from the door, standing face to face with the other omega. “You said you _made_ him do it?”

“Yeah.”

“Noya, you can’t do that sort of thing, that’s dangerous! If it was any other alpha than Asahi, something bad could have happened.”

“But what’s _supposed_ to happen?” Noya asked again. “You didn’t answer me yet!”

The fair haired boy sighed in frustration and rubbed his face. “It, it can do a lot of things. Alpha scents have a lot of different purposes, unlike ours. Our scent is mainly purposed to _attract_ others, while theirs can be used _against_ others. They use them in fights to win control, or they can use it to mark their territory so others won’t take it.”

“But what about to _us_ ,” Noya pushed. “What’s it supposed to do to _us_?”

He looked uncomfortable, but talked anyway. “When an omega is in heat and they smell an alpha, it’s like a catalyst, intensifying the heat further.”

“What about when they’re _not_ in heat?” Noya grabbed onto Suga’s arm as it still held onto his shoulder.

“They … it can be used to show dominance over them, to remind them they’re weaker, that they can’t fight back, and depending on the situation, it can force them into a false heat.”

Noya released his every strengthening grip on Suga’s arm and let his eyes fall down to the other’s shoulders. Asahi’s unwillingness to reveal his scent to him suddenly made sense. Asahi must have known what would happen, and tried to prevent it, but Noya was too stupid and stubborn to listen. He forced _Asahi_ to force _him_ into submission.

“Noya, why would you ask him to do that?”

The younger took a step back and started stripping.

“N-n-noya, what are you doing?!” Suga exclaimed and held his hands up as the other dropped clothes left and right as he headed over to the shelves.

“I have to go talk to him,” he said. He ignored his flustered companion and reached for his bag where he fished out his normal clothes.

“What?”

“I didn’t know!”

Suga halted his flustered motions. It must have been the break in Noya’s voice.

“I didn’t know what would happen! I didn’t know what I was making him do!”

“Noya…”

“I have to fix this,” he pressed on, trying to ignore how poorly his voice was coming out as he slung his uniform back on.

“Fix this?”

“He thinks he’s the one that did something wrong, but he's not. If he think’s he did something wrong, he’ll never come back, he’ll never look at me again, and I can’t let that happen.”

Noya finished tying his shoes and looked up to Suga, who had yet to respond. The older omega just looked at him with a sad face, but it was one of understanding. He looked away and swallowed.

“Tell Daichi I’m sorry,” he said. He grabbed his bag off the shelf, revealing the sizable dent in the metal beneath. “Tell him I’m also sorry about the shelf.”

Before he gave a chance for Suga to respond, he was out the door, down the stairs, and started walking in the direction he’d seen Asahi walk every day after school towards his home.

He just had to figure out where exactly that was.


	9. Chapter 9

Asahi was too tall for his couch to lay on it properly, much like most of the furniture at his house. In order to lay down, he had to rest one of his calves on an armrest, leaving his foot to hang out in the open past the boundaries of the couch, while the other leg hung over the front, where his foot easily hit the floor, even at a large lax angle. He usually avoided laying down on the couch because image of a large guy on a tiny couch was most likely humorous to anyone who happened to see, but today, he didn’t care. He simply laid there with the TV on in the background and an icepack on his stomach, resting his tender hand on said icepack, letting both his mind and his hand relish in numbness.

The day had been long. Writing notes proved difficult when it hurt to rest your hand against the desk, or to move it a lot in general. He managed to hide from everyone, except Daichi, who came searching for the keys since Takeda never received them.

“I won’t be at practice today,” he said, handing Daichi the keys with his non-dominant hand.

Daichi shot him a confused look. “Why’s that?”

“I hurt my hand.”

“What?”

Asahi accidentally shouted when Daichi violently grabbed his hand to check to see if he was lying. He then turned red as nearby students stared due to the sudden outburst.

“Hm, so you’re not lying,” Daichi said calmly, letting go of Asahi’s hand and looking up at him. Asahi didn’t look meet his gaze, but instead looked down at his jacket. It was his own jacket today. “What did you do?”

“… something incredibly stupid.”

Daichi flashed him a look, but Asahi didn’t bother to stick around to see what kind of look it was. He instead went and hid while he ate lunch in an empty stairwell.

Now he was sitting in an empty house, with only the television to keep him company while everyone else was at practice, where he should be.

Not that he could ever show his face in front of Noya again.

Asahi jumped when his phone vibrated against the coffee table. He sighed and reached over with his left hand to check it. He assumed it was one his parents informing him that they’d be home late from work, or to pick up something on his way home, or what have you.

 < One new message from Nishinoya, Yuu. >

Asahi sat up quickly, letting the ice pack fall to the floor as he swung his legs around to face forward. Out of all the people that would text him, he was not expecting _him_.

His gut twisted as he stared at the screen, at the small little message icon that glowed before him and the name beside it. What words the wronged omega could possibly say to him now seemed nonexistent, yet there they were, hiding in an electronic envelope, taunting him.

He clicked to open it.

< Where’s your house? >

Asahi was stunned for a moment. A very long moment. Long enough for another message to appear.

 < Give me your address or I’ll keep spamming you. >

He couldn’t wrap his head around it. Was this some sort of joke? An elaborate plot to somehow get back at him?

 < Asahi, where do you live? >

< Aaaaa Saaaaaa Hiiiiiiii >

< What’s your address? >

< An answer would be helpful right about now. >

As he read each text, he could hear the other’s voice ring through his head, driving him mad. He couldn’t take much more and caved, texting the other boy his address.

The insistent messaging stopped.

The only sound in the room was once again the TV.

He was a dead man. He just gave his address to a boy who had every reason to come and murder him in his sleep. Noya was so small, he wouldn’t be able to carry Asahi’s dead body out of there, so he’d probably chop him to pieces and scatter the body parts around town so no one would be able to find him, and he’d turn into a missing person on the news that no one actually looks for, all the while some stray dogs are chewing on a leg they found stuck on the side of the river. That’s not how he wanted to go, not being eaten by stray dogs! He wanted to at least reach the point where he actually looked his age and not like some twenty year old that’s still stuck in high school because of bad grades, which he doesn’t have to begin with. He actually had better grades than both Daichi and Suga, but would anyone believe the guy who looked like a gang member? NO.

Asahi was so lost in thought, he nearly leapt out of his skin when he heard the doorbell ring.

He stared at the door, frozen in place on his couch. The doorbell rang again, and he turned off the television, eyes not leaving the door. It rang once more before the sounds of fists pounding the door filled the room.

“ASAHI!”

He curled his hands into fists, then remembered the one was still sore.

“ASAHI, OPEN UP!”

He forced himself to stand, and slowly walk towards the door, towards the impending storm just on the other side.

“ASAHI, PLEASE! OPEN UP!”

_… did he just say please?_

_An angry person on a murderous rampage wouldn’t say please._

Carefully, he opened the door to find the shorter boy staring back, slightly out of breath and a bit sweaty. The piercing eyes were not ones of anger, but the exact opposite.

“I’m sorry!”

Asahi blinked a few times and furrowed his eyebrows, opening the door all the way to fully see the other.

“W-what?”

“I’m sorry!” he repeated, and bowed low, exposing all of his back to the taller boy. “I didn’t know what I was asking you to do!”

It took a minute for Asahi to connect the dots.

“N-noya, I should be the one apologizing! Not you!” Asahi rushed out, but Noya’s head whipped back up to look at him.

“You didn’t do anything wrong!”

Asahi quickly pressed his lips together at the intensity the other boy looked at him with. He sounded so honest, like he truly believed the words he was saying.

“I asked you to do something you didn’t want to do, something that you knew could scare me, but you did it against your will because I’m a stubborn jackass. Knowing you, you’re shouldering all the blame, that you somehow hurt me, but don’t! I _hate_ that! I _hate_ when you make everything your fault, even though it is not your fault! You did nothing wrong, so please just believe me! Don’t run away from me, that’s not what I want! I’m not mad! I’m not scared! Just don't … don’t disappear again…”

Any fear he held melted away as he looked upon the libero who pleaded on his doorstep, though the guilt still nestled within him. He forgot how upset Noya had been when he heard Asahi stopped going to club. Apparently, the fear of him leaving again was very real. He cared more about Asahi vanishing than what Asahi did to him the other night, neither event Asahi was particularly proud of. What made his guilt worse was the fact the image of Noya beneath him still burned in his mind and twisted his thoughts, preventing a peaceful sleep.

He could never admit it was a sight that he’d want to see again.

“I’m still sorry for what I did to you,” Asahi said softly. He could see the other’s eyes narrow in anger and began talking again before he could give Noya the chance. “But, don’t worry. I’ll come back to club as soon as my hand is better. It’ll just take a few days.”

Noya seemed satisfied with the answer, for the glare lifted and he gave a small nod. “How is your hand, by the way?”

“It’s okay.” He lifted it up, looking at it from different angles. There was no visible bruising, which helped him hide it from his parents. “It’s not broken or anything, just very sore.”

“That’s good,” answered Noya, who cracked a small smile. “The shelf doesn’t look nearly as well as your hand does.”

Asahi blinked. “How did you know I hit the shelf?”

“You left a big ol’ dent in it. It’s pretty impressive, actually! Didn’t know you could hit so hard. Though, I really should have guessed with how powerful your spikes tend to be.”

The ace groaned into his hands. He hadn’t looked at the shelf when he left the changing room, therefore hadn’t realized he dealt property damage. He briefly wondered if he had enough money to pay to replace it.

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Noya dismissed. “But anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

Asahi lowered his hands and didn’t fight the smile forming on his face. “Yeah.”

Noya grinned back and began heading down the steps, though stopped awkwardly half way down. He turned back around and said, “Oh, um, you smell like fire. A wood one. In a good way, of course! Just thought you should know.”

The boy quickly dashed away after saying that, back in the direction of his own home, leaving Asahi stunned in his doorway. He slowly shut the door and clamped a hand over his mouth, trying to suppress the heat that was rapidly reaching his face and ears.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I address Daichi and Suga a fair amount at this point, so I guess I'll add them to the tags...
> 
> Also, thank you all so very very much for the comments!! I'm sorry I never respond to them, but it's hard to type squealing noises for every single one. They are all very encouraging. Every time I see one, I smile and makes me want to write even more. So thank you for sticking with me thus far~! <3

It took well over a week for his hand not to sting when he would strike the ball for a spike. He only skipped a few days of practice, however, and tried his best to play thorough the pain. When Daichi or Noya would see him flinch after hitting the ball, they’d suggest he do a different exercise for the time being. It was frustrating, but he didn’t want to be away from the court for too long, like he had been before.

During the time that passed, Noya developed a habit of visiting him at lunch. He wouldn’t stay the whole lunch, just a handful of minutes in the hallway or as they walked to Asahi’s usual spot, talking about how the day was going and asking how his hand was doing before Tanaka would come looking for his friend and they’d go off to eat lunch together. Every time he would arrive, he’d be all teeth, which warmed Asahi insides. It was almost disappointing when the libero would turn to leave with his other friend only moments later. It’s not like he could bring himself to stop them. He was just more glad than anything that the boy would offer what little time he had between activities to come check up on him. It was starting to become the highlight of his day.

Other than those few minutes, the two didn’t get to spend much time alone together. They were always accompanied by other teammates. Tanaka was in and out, depending if he was spending time with the other second years at that moment or not. Hinata would swoop in from time to time asking for tips. Daichi or Suga would be near by since all three of the seniors seemed to naturally gravitate towards one another, a habit that formed due to knowing each other for so long.

However, recently, the air between the three friends was off slightly.

As the three of them sat together during free-period, it almost seemed quieter than normal. Asahi tried to explain it away with the upcoming exams, but still, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. As he watched his two friends scribble silently in their notebooks, Asahi stared and thought.

Daichi didn’t seem to be acting all that different. If anything, he seemed more relaxed around Asahi when the two were alone. It could have been due to the fact that he had come to the realization that Asahi might know about whatever was going on between him and Suga. All and all, when the two alphas stood face to face, it was like nothing had changed.

But when it was all three of them, then, there was a slight unease that gripped Asahi.

Which meant that Suga was the source.

The more Asahi thought about it, the more he realized that the omega hadn’t looked him in the eye in days.

Perhaps Daichi told Suga that Asahi suspected something, and now he was embarrassed? That didn’t really sound like Suga though. He had always been more of a “you have to deal with this gently, but you _have to deal with it_ ” kind of person. If Asahi possibly knowing what was going on between the two caused anything, it wouldn’t be this. There would be a discussion, an exchange of understanding, followed by acceptance of the situation, and then they move on. He tended to be rather mature in that sense, at least compared to the rest of them. Seeing as no discussion has happened yet, that could only mean Daichi hadn’t said a thing to Suga yet. Or there wasn’t anything going on between them in the first place.

There just _happened_ to be an exchange of clothing to survive a heat…

Suga stretched a bit in his chair and looked up, accidentally making eye contact with Asahi, then immediately looked down. He turned to Daichi to inform him that he was going to the bathroom, then quickly left the room.

Asahi’s unease grew stronger.

“Hey.”

Daichi looked up from his homework. “Yeah?”

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Like what?”

“Are you two …” Asahi vaguely waved a finger back and forth between Daichi and the now empty chair. “I mean … what are you now?”

Daichi put down his pencil and leaned onto the table, letting out a sigh of defeat as he dragged a hand through his hair. “Honestly, I have no idea.”

His face was the same as nearly two weeks ago now, when Asahi first confronted him about Suga’s jacket. The same uncertainty, the same uncomfortableness. This time around, however, he was much less nervous. He seemed relieved to be able to talk about it, possibly for the first time with someone else.

“Did something happen?”

“You know his last heat?” Daichi asked, then thought about his question. “Not the one that just happened, but the one before that?”

_That had been nearly two months ago._

“Yeah?”

“I…” Asahi watched his friend struggle with words, licking and chewing his lips as though the answer was somehow hidden on them. “I had called him, on Sunday, to talk about homework and stuff, and … I hadn’t realized he was in heat. But he picked up the phone! He … he was trying his best to sound normal, but he couldn’t last. He was breathing like he was hurt and … and … he was crying, Asahi…”

He could see the pain in the other’s face as he seemed to be reliving the moment right before his eyes.

“He said that it had never been this bad before,” he continued, though his speech became more hushed and his eyes concentrated on the center of their table. “It just hurt to listen to. Before I knew it, I was on his doorstep, and, well,” he petered out with a large sigh and rubbed his face.

“Then what about this last heat?”

“That’s the confusing thing! After what happened that night, we never really brought it up. It simply got ignored and we went with our lives, which was fine, I guess, but then during this heat, I showed up to his house with his homework and offered to help again and he wouldn't open his bedroom door. He didn’t even talk, but I could hear him crying … so I left my jacket on his door and was planing to leave, but I spotted his jacket on the coatrack and … I couldn’t help but take it.”

Asahi remained quiet, watching his friend struggle with his inner turmoil. The nervousness he had seen on Daichi that day was making more and more sense with each word the other spoke.

“The next day, I dropped off his homework and tried to speak with him. It was very quiet for what felt like ages, so I just talked. Spoke about my day, club, anything just to fill the void, to try to get a response from him. There was none. So I apologized to him, saying whatever I did wrong, I didn’t mean to, that I would do anything to fix it. Finally, FINALLY, he opened the door and handed me my jacket, thanking me, and I saw him, and…” Daichi swallowed hard. “I just don’t know what to do, Asahi …”

The other alpha could think of no response that could even be deemed appropriate for a situation like this. There probably wasn’t one.

“Whenever I _think_ about him, when I _see_ him, when I _smell_ him, it’s like he’s the only thing to exist in the whole world. I thought maybe that was just the standard response that an alpha gets when in the presence of an omega, but now, I just don’t know. It’s like it’s trying to consume me, and I don’t want to fight it. I’d rather have it swallow me.” Daichi took a deep breath and looked up at Asahi, who had been watching him the whole time. “I’m probably not making any sense, am I?”

Little did he know, to Asahi, he was making perfect sense. He knew that feeling all too well, the feeling of being wrapped up and devoured by the simple existence of another being. When a person seems to be burned into your mind, craved by your eyes, and fills you to the brim by merely smiling at you. It’s large, it’s heavy, and it could so easily destroy you, but all you can feel is a fire build within you that seems to make all of that disappear.

Maybe this was what it meant to be in love.

Asahi put a hand on the other’s shoulder and shook it ever so slightly, and gave him a look, one of empathy and of mutual struggle.

“I understand.”

Suga re-entered the room, and the ace withdrew his hand, returning to his homework. Suga still didn’t look at him, nor at Daichi, and returned to his own studies. Asahi watched the other alpha look upon the omega with a small, tight smile before turning away.

 

* * *

 

 

Asahi spent nearly all of practice observing his friends.

Daichi appeared primarily normal, keeping an eye on everyone throughout practice, with a small lingering glance towards Suga every now and then. Suga would sometimes do the same, but would immediately look away if he saw Daichi was about to look at him.

Their lack of personal space with one another also seemed to have changed. If they were ever talking, Suga would be sure that there was a comfortable amount of space between the two. The change was small, a mere few inches of new space, nothing that could be substantially noticeable to the rest of the team. Asahi on the other hand, who had known the two longer than any of the others, he knew better.

He worried about their rift, about Daichi’s feeling for Suga, and if things would ever clear itself up.

It also made himself worry about where he stood with Noya.

The end of practice was called and clean up commenced. When they were all done and everyone was about to leave the building, Asahi felt a slap on his back.

“Hey, Asahi!”

The ace looked down and saw Noya smiling up at him. He automatically smiled back. “Oh, Noya.”

“You wanna hang out at my place?”

His steps faltered, and he stopped. “What?”

“Thought we could play a game or something,” the shorter suggested, studying Asahi’s face as he awaited a response.

They’d never really hung out outside of school before, not just the two of them. Not that Asahi was against the idea or anything. In fact, he was elated by the proposal. What made him nervous was the fact that he, an alpha, would be going over to an omega’s house. Was he allowed to do that? Wouldn’t Noya’s mom kick him out? What if she assumes that he’s there to … shit, this was getting to be overwhelming!

But Noya was looking up at him, eagerly awaiting his response. The delay almost made it seem like it was making the boy nervous.

“Yeah,” Asahi finally spit out. He nodded and repeated himself. “Yeah. Sounds like fun.”

Noya’s smile threatened to conquer his whole face. “Cool! Hurry up, then! You always change so slowly,” he laughed and ran off to the changing room, along with the others.

Asahi smiled to himself and began walking again, only to be halted by a tug on his wrist. He turned and saw Suga.

He was staring him right in the eye.

“If you hurt him,” he said lowly, dangerously, “I’ll never be able to forgive you.”

Asahi’s stomach clenched up as he stared at his friend, the omega who’s grip was still tight on his wrist, growing ever tighter. The anger in his eyes was real and unwavering.

He was confused by his sudden warning, as to why Suga would care so much about Noya, but then it slowly clicked within his mind. Back when Noya and Asahi first had their talk about his new status, he had mentioned that the only other person that knew was Suga. An omega protecting one of its own. But the bite in his words sounded so much more than just that, as though he sternly believed that Asahi would do something to Noya, something terrible. This wasn’t just natural instinct, this was him reacting to something specific. It was the reason he refused to look Asahi in the eye for weeks.

_He knew about what happened in the changing room._

Asahi opened his mouth to apologize, to promise not to do anything, to say that he would never do such a thing, to say anything at all, but words seemed to be lodged in his throat.

His eyes glanced up over Suga’s shoulder and spotted Daichi, who had been talking to Ukai and Takeda. He was walking towards them, but stopped when he saw the tense atmosphere between the two.

Suddenly Daichi’s words from earlier were the only thing that filled Asahi’s head.

“I could say the same to you,” Asahi finally answered, looking down at Suga, “about Daichi.”

Suga was surprised enough that he instantly let go. In all honestly, Asahi was surprised at his own words as well, but not nearly as much as the setter was. He had drawn his arms close to him and gripped his shirt, dropping his line of sight to the floor.

The ace took the opportunity to run away, well, more so walk away and suppress the urge to flat out sprint. Though, as he approached the club room, his steps hastened, and he changed faster than normal, which Noya applauded. By the time the two were down the stairs and heading to Noya’s, he spotted Suga and Daichi finally leaving the gymnasium.

There was a much larger distance between them now.

 

* * *

 

 

Noya was right in saying that he lived close to school. The walk there was well under ten minutes. Still, Asahi took in his surroundings as much as he could as they walked, trying to remember the way there. You know, just incase he ever needed to know. That wasn’t weird, right?

When they arrived, they took off their shoes and closed the door behind them. Not long after, a voice called out from another room.

“Welcome home!”

A woman appeared before them.

“Yuu, who’s your friend?”

“This is Asahi!” he proudly proclaimed, holding up a hand in presentation. Asahi tensed out of habit at being the center of attention.

“Nice to finally meet you,” she said politely enough, and gave a small nod. Asahi returned the gesture, though his bow dipped lower than hers.

She used the word “finally.” Did Noya mention him before?

“I’ll go set up the game!” Noya said before quickly dashing down the hallway towards where Asahi assumed was his room.

Asahi did not follow him, but stood planted in his spot as Mrs. Nishinoya continued staring at him. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was almost blocking his way from following her son.

The very look of her was intimidating to say the least. Actually, looking at her, Asahi could see a lot of Noya. She was short, her hair was wild, and her eyes were sharp and piercing. She physically stood below him, but he felt as though _he_ was the one being looked down upon.

She leaned in toward him and he inhaled sharply, finally catching her scent.

She was an alpha.

Noya’s mother looked Asahi up and down with narrowed eyes before noticeably trying to smell his scent. The male alpha decided not to move a muscle, too nervous to do much of anything. He didn’t want to accidentally offend her in anyway and somehow start an alpha fight, which was the _last_ thing he wanted to do at his friend’s house.

After a few blinks, she sniffed again and furrowed her eyebrows. She eventually leaned back, gave him a confused look.

“…keep the door open,” was all she said before turning back towards what seemed to be the kitchen.

The boy released the breath he was holding. She must have not been able to catch his scent properly, which was a good thing, he supposed. He had a feeling she would have kicked him out if she did catch it. Still, he did what she said and kept the door to Noya’s bedroom open.

“Do you like fighting games?”

Noya had already taken off his uniform jacket and hung it on the wall, and was now throwing down pillows and blankets onto the floor in front of an old television with a much newer console in front of it.

“I’m not sure,” he said, placing his bag in the corner and setting his own jacket on top of it. “I haven’t really played enough to say.”

“What?! They’re amazing! Now we _gotta_ play some!” his friend exclaimed and flopped down onto one of the two piles he had created on the floor. He laid on his belly with the padding tucked underneath just enough to lift his shoulders off the ground to allow for optimal video game playing. “Do you prefer swords or fists?”

“Um, which ever one is easier, I guess.”

Noya shook his head and loaded the game, handing Asahi a controller as he settled into his own pile of padding. He sat on a pillow and piled a blanket into his lap to rest his wrists on as he played.

Playing video games with the libero reminded Asahi of the way he played volleyball. Not nearly as quietly, perhaps, but he would give tips as they played, saying which character Asahi should start with since he’s never played, different combos that would work well for him, cheering for him when Asahi would win, telling Asahi what he did wrong when he lost. He was serious, yet relaxed. He looked happy. It made Asahi’s belly warm.

The rest of him, however, was warm for a different reason.

Being as it was Noya’s room, everything smelled of him. _Everything_. The carpet, the pillow, the blanket in his lap, there was no escape. It made his head swim, even as he did his best to ignore it. It was pleasant, warming, yet overwhelming in the worst kind of sense. He was kind of grateful for the blanket in his lap at the moment.

“Are you okay?”

“Hm?”

Noya looked up at him with concern. Asahi notice his shirt was riding up in certain places, and he redirected his eyes to the boy’s face.

“Are you hot?”

“Oh,” Asahi mumbled, realizing just how hot he was. “M-maybe a little.”

“Are you sick?”

“N-no, no, nothing like that.”

He tilted his head to the side and Asahi looked away, trying to will his face from becoming any more red that it already was.

“Yuu.”

Both the boys looked over to Noya’s mom who stood in the doorway. She spoke to Noya, but looked at Asahi. “You should clean up before dinner.”

“Oh right. Sure thing!” he said. he quickly turned off the game and rose from the floor. “Asahi, you staying for dinner?”

“No,” Asahi answered, rising from his own spot, still holding the blanket and picking up his pillow. “I should be getting home.”

Noya made a noise of playful disapproval, then smiled. “I’ll show you out then!”

Asahi nodded, and placed the padding onto Noya’s bed before readjusting himself discreetly as he could and grabbing his things off the floor. The shorter boy led him out of his room and through the rest of the house, which did not smell of him nearly as much. It was a relief, yet still disappointing. He almost wished he could have slept there, submerged in that smell, though he knew that he would have never been able to sleep properly. Not without things becoming awkward very quickly.

Asahi put his shoes on and Noya held open the door.

“Thanks for coming,” he smiled.

“Thanks for having me.”

“Do you wanna hang out tomorrow, too?”

“Here?”

Noya shrugged. “Wherever.”

Asahi stepped out the door and turned to look at the other boy, who was looking out after him. It was there he felt it, a weight upon his whole being, a strong desire that twisted his stomach that begged him to stay right there. He _really_ didn’t want to go home. He _really_ didn’t want to leave. The act alone seemed more painful than he could have ever imagined.

“Sure,” Asahi finally said. “See you tomorrow.”

He gave a small wave, and Noya waved back as he walked away.

This weight truly was a weight that could easily destroy a person.


	11. Chapter 11

Noya’s mom was a bluster of questions once he had shut the front door.

“Who was that?”

“I told you, that was Asahi.”

“Your team member.”

“Yup.”

“The Ace?”

“Yup!”

“What year is he?”

“Third.”

“Really.”

“Yup.”

“What’s his class?”

“I don’t know, three?”

“No,” his mother stopped their walk down the hallway and leaned on the doorframe of the bathroom, looking her son in the eye. “What is his _class_?” she repeated.

Noya couldn’t stop his eyebrows from arching upwards. _She couldn’t tell?_

“Why does it matter?” he retaliated and walked past his mother into the bathroom.

“It _matters_ , Yuu.”

He ground his teeth lightly. “No it doesn’t. We’re teammates. We’re _friends_ ,” he found himself adding, though for all he knew, that feeling could be one-sided. It’s not like either one of them addressed each other as such. Maybe he was being hopeful.

“You have to tell me if he is an alpha, Yuu,” she said with warning. She emitted the subtlest of scents that made the hair on Noya’s neck prickle.

“ _Ryuu’s_ an alpha!” he spat out, finding himself getting wound up. “Are you saying I can’t hang out with _him_ anymore?! He’s my best friend! You can’t tell me I can’t be friends with him just because we aren’t the same damn class!”

“That boy also hasn’t set foot in this house since you presented!”

“That’s because you scare the hell out of him!” he fought, which was true. The two once had a standoff in the living room and the place stunk for a week. Since then, they usually hung out at Tanaka’s place when they didn’t go to the movies or the arcade.

His mother had never opposed of that arrangement, though in retrospect, it was probably because both of Ryuu’s parent’s were home when they hung out. With Ryuu’s mom being a beta, his own mother probably deemed the environment “safe enough.”

The woman twitched her hands and harshly blinked in frustration and let out a puff of air through her nose. “That’s not the point,” she bit, returning her gaze to her son. “I just want to know what Asahi’s class is.”

Noya glared at his mother as his fists clenched at his side. It bothered him that she cared so much, that just the mere _notion_ that Asahi was alpha seemed to make her nearly breathe fire. It shouldn’t matter what they were, all he cared about was that they could spend time together, that’s all. He just wanted to be around him, was that so wrong? Just because they were different classes now, they weren’t allowed to be near one another?

“Yuu, answer me!”

Why did he have to be a stupid omega? He doesn’t want to be treated like glass, about to break at any moment. He’s the same as he ever was. He was strong, he could take care of himself. He didn’t need people to try and shelter him from everything, especially from the things he enjoys, the things that bring him happiness, the things he -

“YUU!”

There was a wave of smell and his body went ridged before he fell to his knees. His fists stayed clenched, as did his teeth, and all he could find himself doing was looking up at his mother with an odd combination of anger and fear.

The glare disappeared from the woman’s face, and the smell of burning metal along with it. She seemed surprised with herself. She sighed, then swallowed, and finally looked away.

“Dinner will be ready soon,” was all she said before shutting the bathroom door.

The boy let his body release all tension and fall into a sitting position on the floor.

Why did the world have to curse him with being a fucking omega…

 

* * *

 

There had been no lingering scent of Asahi in Noya’s room after the event. Not on the blanket he held, nor the pillow he sat on. The scent that once clung to Noya’s main school uniform was also long gone at that point. It hadn’t lasted long, maybe a day or so, though he shouldn’t have been surprised. He had been sleeping with it after all.

The conversation between his mother and him had been dropped, never once mentioned at dinner, afterwards, or at breakfast. Though it was not overlooked that the alpha made Noya’s favorite breakfast of egg on toast with bacon.

She must have felt guilty about using her own status against her son, but Noya didn’t question it. It was better left dead and forgotten.

But that dead horse just wasn’t done getting beaten yet.

When Noya arrived at school, he found Suga hovering around the shoe cubbies.

“Good morning, Noya,” he said, giving his usual smile.

“Morning, Suga,” the younger replied and started switching his shoes.

“How was your evening?”

Noya looked at the other for a moment. “Fine.”

Suga nodded. Then there was a pause. “So nothing bad happened?”

The libero slammed his shoes into his cubby, creating a loud bang that made the third year jump.

“This is about Asahi, isn’t it?” Noya snapped. All the anger he had felt last night seemed to be bubbling up within him at lightning speeds.

Suga chewed his lip. “Noya, I’m just worried that—”

“Why do you care?! Why does _anyone_ care?!” ” he exclaimed, probably more loudly than he should have. A few passing students were starting to give funny looks.

The older omega’s face tightened, and he looked down. “Sorry.”

Noya found himself sighing loudly. “Forget it,” he muttered and began to walk off.

He shouldn’t be yelling at his senior. It’s not like the boy did anything wrong. Noya was still riled from last night, that’s all.

A hand grabbed his arm and he stopped. He turned to face Suga, but the older kept his eyes downcast.

“You really like him, don’t you?”

Noya was so taken aback that his mind went completely blank.

“What?”

“You’re not afraid of him, or what he could do, even after experiencing it first hand,” Suga spoke quietly, just loud enough for Noya to hear him, and not the others that walked past. “You hardly know how your own body works, let alone his, yet you still stand beside him as though there is no difference between you. You really trust him.”

“Yeah, I do,” he answered automatically. When it came to trusting Asahi, it wasn’t the kind of thing he had to think about.

Slowly, Suga let go of his arm and sighed, finally looking up at him.

“I forget you’re stronger than I am.”

Noya was at a loss for words, so he didn’t have time to respond as Suga started walking away.

“Just,” he added over his shoulder, “be careful,” he said before disappearing in the crowd on his way to his classroom.

Noya chewed the inside of his cheek, then proceeded to his own classroom, trying to ignore Suga’s words that still floated around his skull.

_“You really like him, don’t you?”_

 

* * *

 

Words still swarmed him, clawing, dragging their nails across his skin giving him goosebumps. They wouldn’t leave, no matter how hard he concentrated on the voice of his teachers. They stayed in place, and rang so loud that he didn’t even hear the bell chime for lunch. He moved automatically, not paying attention to where his feet were taking him as the words were too overbearing, blocking out everything.

The feet stopped at their destination, and Noya looked up at Asahi, who was still sitting in his desk of his classroom.

Noya blinked a few times as he stood in the doorway, and Asahi blinked back.

Neither one made a motion to move.

“Hey!” Noya forced out of his throat. It came out louder than intended, though it could most defiantly be unnoticeable considering who exactly was speaking.

“Hey?” Asahi responded, finally rising from his chair. His voice sounded confused, but yet he gave a small smile when he looked over at Noya. It was quiet, like he was.

“You still up to hanging out tonight?”

The smile grew. Not by much, but still. “Sure, if you’d like. However …” he let his voice trail off.

Noya waited in anticipation, bracing for some sort of rejection.

“I don’t think your mom likes me very much…”

The younger let out a small grunt of surprise before laughing loudly and openly, shocking Asahi and anyone close by.

“Oh, she’s just territorial! You know, new person in the house. Don’t take everything so personally, Asahi!” he laughed, hitting Asahi in the arm.

The hit hadn’t been hard enough to hurt, but the ace rubbed his arm out of reflex while nodding. “Right.”

“We can hang out somewhere else if you want! How about your place?”

Noya couldn't believe the words that just fell out of his mouth.

Apparently, neither could Asahi. The other’s face noticeably changed color, flushing and tightening. “O-oh,” he muttered, and scratched his head. “W-well, I’ve never really had friends over, and there’s not much to do. We have a TV in the living room, but that’s pretty much it.”

“Wait, you’ve never had friends over?”

“Um, well, no, not really…”

“Not even Daichi or Suga?”

“N-no…” the giant mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Is that weird?”

“Just hard to believe, that’s all!”

Asahi nodded, looking unsure of how to respond to Noya’s response. It was true though, that Noya couldn’t believe no one else ever visited Asahi’s home before. So if Noya came over, he’d be the first. For some reason, that concept seemed to make his chest float.

“Noya!” came Ryuu’s voice, soon followed by an arm around the shoulder.

The libero couldn’t decide if he was thankful for his friend’s arrival to break the awkward tension, or if he had wished for more time alone with the third year.

“You ready?”

“You bet!” he smiled at his friend, before turning to Asahi. “See you at practice!”

The taller boy nodded again with a small noise of confirmation before walking down the hallway, in the exact opposite direction Ryuu began leading Noya down. His eyes followed the other boy until they rounded a corner and Asahi disappeared from sight.

Some reason the hallways felt so much emptier.

“Dude,” said Ryuu. “Was I … interrupting something?”

“Huh?”

His friend gave him a look. “You two had weird faces going on, so I was making sure you two weren’t fighting again or something.”

_Ah. Right._

“Naw, nothing like that!” Noya replied as cheerfully as he could muster.

Ryuu wasn’t completely sold, but the conversation soon wandered into other things, girls, video games, the usual. Chatting with his friend was a good distraction from his thoughts, so it was disappointing when lunch was over and he was back in the classroom, where his thoughts returned and those words scraped at him once again.

No matter what he did, he couldn’t outrun them. They followed him all the way to practice.

_“You really like him, don’t you?”_

The receive swerved to the right, off the court and nearly hitting Takeda. Ukai let out a roar of warning.

“Are you okay?”

Asahi stood on the other side of the net, grabbing it lightly as he spoke to him. Everyone had broken into pairs to practice. Naturally, the strongest receiver got paired with the strongest hitter.

He was looking at Noya with worry in his brows, nervously awaiting what Noya’s response would be, but the younger couldn’t think of one, at least not a logical one. All he could do is listen to how loud his own panting was and how strong his heart was pounding.

At his silence, Asahi raised the net a bit and ducked underneath so he could be face to face with Noya. A strong hand rested on his shoulder.

“We’ve been at this for a while now. Do you wanna take a break?”

The ace wasn’t lying. It had been almost half an hour since they started.

“F-forgive me. I’ll make sure to get the next one properly…”

Asahi sighed, and Noya could feel the other’s thumb worry against his shoulder, making small circles in the fabric on to the skin beneath it. He wasn’t sure if the alpha was aware of his own actions, but he decided not to question it. For some reason, the action felt so calming.

“You’re allowed to be tired, you know.”

He closed his eyes. It felt so warm, too.

“Noya?”

The motion stopped, and the libero opened his eyes. “Hm?”

“Nishinoya!”

The lost ball came flying at them. It narrowly missed Asahi and nearly hit Noya in the face. Thankfully, he caught it before it could have collided with his nose.

“Watch what’chya doing!” Ukai rumbled at them across the room. Takeda stood behind him trying to calm him down.

“Yessir!” Noya responded by reflex.

Funnily enough, Asahi responded at the same time.

“He’s scolding _me_ , not _you_ ,” Noya said, looking up at him. “You have no reason to apologize.”

“Oh,” Asahi scratched his head. “Sorry.”

Noya threw the ball at Asahi’s chest, who caught it. “One more time.”

The ace stared at him for a moment, before nodding and ducking back beneath the net, bouncing the ball against the floor as he walked. He watched every movement, and how the muscles shifted in his legs and shoulders, and listened the reverberating slams of the ball striking the gymnasium floor.

_“You’re not afraid of him, or what he could do…”_

He watched the other turn to face him, spinning the ball in his hands before lobbing it into the air, watched the way his neck stretched as he looked up, how his arm moved for the attack. The smack of the ball was the loudest in the room, and it veered just a hair to the right.

_“You really trust him.”_

The received ball went straight into the net. Noya watched it fall lamely to the ground, and roll slowly back towards him before stopping a few steps away.

“Shit” he hissed and grabbed at the side of his head in frustration. “Shit, shit, shit,” he continued to himself, grabbing his hair and pulling. He ended up letting out a frustrated sigh and squatted down to the floor to dig his palms into his eye sockets.

Heavy steps approached and the hand on his shoulder returned.

“Maybe we should stop.” Judging by where the voice was coming from, Asahi must have been crouched down beside him.

“… do that thing again, with your thumb …”

He could practically hear the other blink. “What?”

“… please…”

“You mean this?”

There were the small circles again. A part of him wished that the cloth wasn’t in the way, so the hand would touch his skin directly. That was probably an odd wish, but he wished it all the same. He took deep breaths and concentrated only on the motions.

He was surprised how long it lasted, that Asahi didn’t stop what he was doing, nor ask about it. It only ceased when Daichi wandered over and asked if Noya was okay. Everyone took a small break, and they moved onto a different exercise. When Ukai finally blew the whistle, it was one of the few times that Noya had ever been grateful that practice was over.

He changed slowly, even slower than Asahi, but the other didn’t leave when he was finished, he instead waited beside him, even when the room emptied one by one.

“You can go home, you know. I’m okay, really,” said Noya, tying up his shoelaces.

“Oh,” Asahi said, rubbing his neck, “Well, I thought you were going to come over, so…”

Noya perked up. “Wait, really?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Yes! I mean, yeah, I’m coming! Sorry, I’ll change faster!”

Asahi put up his hands in defense. “I didn’t mean to rush you!”

Noya flung on his jacket and bag at lighting speeds. “Let’s go!”

After a flustered Asahi caught up with him, they were soon back in front of the house Noya had visited a few weeks ago. It looked different this time around, and it took Noya a moment to figure out why.

“No one’s home,” he observed aloud.

“My parent’s work late,” Asahi explained, fishing out his keys from his bag. “They usually don’t get home until after 7:30, so we tend to eat supper late.”

“Oh,” was all he could say back.

_That means they’re home alone._

Asahi paused, and looked over at him. “… is that okay?”

“Yeah!” Noya said as calmly as he could. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Asahi slowly nodded to himself before heading inside. He admitted he didn’t know much about being a host, so he started off pointing out all the rooms, including his room.

It was so small. The desk was small, and the bed didn’t look nearly large enough to hold its owner. There was also not a single poster on the wall, like his or Ryuu’s rooms. All there was was a pile of books on the floor by the desk and a spot on the closet door to hang his school uniform. Like the rest of the house, it felt bare and empty.

“Your bed is so tiny!” Noya found himself saying as Asahi removed his jacket to hang it on its designated hanger.

Without much thought, he jumped onto said bed.

This was, simultaneously, the worst and best decision he had ever made.

It was the smell, that warm wooden fire. It was embedded in the sheets. It wasn’t overpowering or anything, but it was just present enough that Noya could smell it when his face hit the fabric. He suddenly felt warm and safe.

He opened his eyes in the realization that he had curled himself into the bed. He jolted upright into a sitting position, and turned to find that Asahi was staring at him.

Noya cleared his throat, “So, what do you do for fun around here?”

Asahi looked down and away, rubbing the back of his neck quite harshly. “Well, when I get home, I do my homework, then either watch tv or read until I have to start supper. Sometimes, we play cards after we eat, but not always.”

“… you start supper?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

The older boy made an odd shrugging motion.

“What kinda cards do you play?”

He scratched his head. “Nothing too fancy. Cribbage, mostly…”

Noya pulled a face. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s a game my dad picked up from a friend of his from work.”

“Huh.”

Silence stretched between them, with Asahi looking at him as he fiddled with the sheets beneath him. He suppressed the urge to bury himself back into them.

“Let’s watch TV,” Noya finally suggested, and hopped up from his spot, getting as much distance between him and the bed as possible.

He didn’t even wait for Asahi as he headed back out into the living room. He helped himself onto the couch and the remote, turning it on and flicking channels until he found something he liked. Asahi brought him some water and they watched together without much talking.

Noya found himself looking back and forth between the screen and the person next to him, a mere seat cushion away. He tried to take a deep breath as subtly as he could, but to no result, which was what he expected, but not what he had hoped. A part of him wished he could smell the bed again, that the couch would smell the same, but it did not. He couldn’t even smell the person next to him, the source of it all. He was just a stupid omega that couldn’t smell to save his soul. Asahi could do it, no doubt.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Asahi could probably smell him right now.

The alpha said that Noya smelled like bread, while Noya said the other smelled of a wood fire. He wondered if that meant that together they smelled like a bakery.

The omega chuckled to himself at the thought.

Asahi noticed and put a hand on his shoulder, causing the younger to look up at him.

He was quiet for a moment before asking, “You feeling better, then?”

Noya stared at him. He was still concerned about how Noya acted during practice. Here Noya was, at Asahi’s house, with the the person he most wanted to hang out with, just the two of them, with a warm hand on his shoulder, and all Asahi cared about was if Noya was okay.

“Much better,” he grinned. It was the widest he had smiled all day. “Thank you.”

Asahi smiled back, and they both sunk into the couch to continue watching their show. A small smile remained on the omega’s face.

It finally clicked.

 

_“You really like him, don’t you?”_

_“Yeah, I do.”_


	12. Chapter 12

To say the day hadn’t been exhausting would have been a complete lie.

With exams so close by, nearly all of Asahi’s classmates were becoming high strung. That stress led to sweating and leaking, which lead to the air becoming thick and muddled with dozens upon dozens of different smells. The only way Asahi has been surviving so far without straight up keeping his face buried in his shirt to avoid the smells was to sit with his elbow propped against the desk to support his head, with his knuckles pressed up against his mouth and nose. To onlookers, it would look like he was just thinking hard while he worked, but he was primarily concentrating on the smell of his own skin and the residual scent of hand soap in attempts to breath without feeling like he was suffocating.

Free period with Daichi and Suga was far from relaxing either. Not one of them talked, each of them keeping their heads buried in their books. The only reason they even all sat together must have been purely due to habit, since it was obvious it was not for the company.

Asahi was starting to regret ever telling Suga off for his recent behavior, since all it managed to do was cause a larger rift to form between them. In all honestly, he was waiting for Daichi to snap at him, for making things even worse, but the anger never came. When Daichi would finally match gazes with Asahi, all that would appear on his face was a small sad smile before turning away again.

All Asahi was doing was making things more complicated across the board. Noya included.

When Noya suggested they hang out at Asahi’s house during lunch, Asahi was sure he could have dropped dead from a heart attack right then and there. To be fair though, Noya almost looked the same way. He never did give a proper answer before Tanaka came in and whisked Noya away for their usual lunch.

He ended up spending the whole day thinking about the proposition, the idea of letting an omega that he undeniably had feelings for into his home, his den, his territory. It could be the very thing that broke him if he wasn’t careful, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. He liked what they had right now, whatever kind of weird friendship they have built up to this point. If he managed to ruin it all, he wasn’t sure if either one of them would ever be able to recover.  
Seeing Daichi and Suga act the way they were was not helping. Instead, it only reenforced his concerns. They had crossed that line, the barrier between friend and mates, between alphas and omegas, and now their relationship with one another was wounded, unsure if and when it will ever heal. It was hard enough to watch it happen to his friends. He didn’t think he could survive going through it himself.

Yet, practice seemed to make him throw all his fears and reasoning to the wind.

Being around the person you care about most seems to do.

When the two had been paired up, Asahi could already tell that the shorter boy was rattled in some way. He was quieter than normal, and his play was off. He seemed distracted.

When the ball curved again, for the umpteenth time, it went completely off the court, followed by a familiar rumble from their coach.

His suspicions couldn’t take much more.

“Are you okay?” he finally asked, paying close attention to how hard the other was breathing and how he managed to still look pale even when his face was flushed. When there was no response, it only caused the worry in him to grow, and found himself standing beside the omega, with a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve been at this for a while now. Do you wanna take a break?”

It took quite a while for the other to respond. Maybe he was waiting for his breathing to even out, or he was thinking of some lie to say to tell the older boy as to not worry him. Either way, his line of sight dropped to the floor somewhere to the right of Asahi.

“F-forgive me. I’ll make sure to get the next one properly…”

It was not the answer Asahi was hoping for, but it probably should have been the one he was expecting. He’s said those words to him before, many times, during games when he couldn’t help Asahi fix his failings. Never once had Asahi scolded him, because it was never his fault to begin with, yet the words would still come. Maybe he was afraid of the day that Asahi really _would_ yell at him, even though they both knew that it was against his nature.

“You’re allowed to be tired, you know,” Asahi quietly offered.

He wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to be invincible, but the other didn’t seem to be listening. Noya had closed his eyes and his body was going lax beneath Asahi’s fingers. The frustration held in his eyebrows slowly seemed to be melting away, which was good.

Then Asahi caught it and froze. Noya’s scent started leaking.

“Noya?”

The younger opened his eyes and gave a sluggish response before their coach called his name an a ball came whizzing past Asahi and caught by Noya. The ball had been so close, the wind had made the hair on his arms stand up.

“Watch what’chya doing!”

“Yessir!”

Noya was puzzled by the fact that Asahi responded as well, though he couldn’t help it. For a second, when he heard another alpha yell across the room, he feared that maybe Ukai had noticed the leak, and assumed that Asahi was responsible. That was obviously not the case, but it still made him worry. If other’s caught wind … just the idea made him nervous for some reason.

The omega brushed it aside and had them resume their practice. Asahi was still bothered, but the scent seemed to have sealed back up to its original strength, a strength that only Asahi has been able to notice so far. He decided not to question him, and returned to his side of the net to serve the ball, only for it to cause his partner to curse to himself and drop down to the ground. Within seconds he was back beside Noya, kneeling down and his hand back on the other’s shoulder.

Watching the other be stressed was starting to cause a pain within him.

“Maybe we should stop.” _For both our sanities._

Noya kept his hands planted forcefully against his eyes, making it hard to gauge exactly what was going through the other’s mind. For a moment, he feared the other could be crying, but realized that his frame would be shuddering if that was the case. All he could feel were tense muscles beneath slightly damp cloth.

“… do that thing again, with your thumb …”

The voice was so small, Asahi wasn’t even sure he heard it.

“What?”

He watched the other’s fingers grip tighter against his hair line, pulling skin. “… please…”

It was so unlike him, to be this quiet and pleading. Asahi couldn’t stop himself from complying.

“You mean this?”

Asahi lightly kneaded the muscle beneath his thumb and listened to the other take deep breaths through the nose, not stopping his body from swaying back and forth from Asahi’s motions. His scent didn’t flare back up again, so Asahi didn’t stop, and merely watched the other.

He didn’t like seeing him like this. Whatever was eating away at Noya caused a different entity to start chewing away at Asahi’s insides as well.

It was there when he decided to toss aside reason.

Once practice was over, he waited for Noya so they could both return to Asahi’s house together.

It seemed to be exactly what the other boy needed.

He seemed nervous as well, but Asahi could have been projecting his own nerves onto the other boy. Despite that, everything went fine, and he finally got the other boy to smile before he had to return to his own home for dinner. Nothing went wrong, and the way Noya smiled up at him as they sat on the couch together made it worth it.

Though, he nearly lost it all when Noya was nesting into his bed.

_His_ bed, where _he_ slept, the omega _he liked_ had buried himself into the sheets. Even when Noya was long gone and it was time to sleep, his scent was still there, so obvious and foreign compared to the rest of the room, the most neutral of places Asahi had created for himself. It had been so hard _not_ to loose all control and turn into a disgusting animal right then and there, but he only managed to hold back when he remembered the fear that had been in Noya’s eyes after the incident in the changing room. Now that Noya was safe at home, with the threat of destroying something he cared for was gone, yet the scent still lingered strong as ever, he finally let himself be disgusting for once.

He tried to ignore the guilt as he changed his sheets, tossing the old ones aside that were now too dirty to even look at.

 

* * *

 

 

Guilt still gnawed at him as he went to school the next day, though a part of him knew that it was just something that he’d have to get used to. It was safer this way.

A pop quiz at the start of class only made the day worse, and Asahi had to keep his sleeves unrolled so he could attempt to subtly keep his nose and mouth covered with the end of his sleeve, using the cloth to filter out the thick air. He was debating on giving up and going to the nurse to get a mask like he did when he was younger, but he hated when people stared at him. People already found him intimidating. Wearing a mask seemed to add to it for some reason, so he usually tried to live without it.

It was a godsend when lunch came and everyone rushed out, taking the cloud of scent with them.

He was eager to get outside, to his usual lunch spot. Halfway there, Noya joined up with him, and they walked together towards the back lawn. The younger’s spirit seemed much brighter today, which made Asahi smile, though there was still something off about his complexion. As they reached the doors and stepped outside, the masses of people disappeared, leaving just the two of them.

Asahi stopped in his tracks.

Now that they were away from everyone, Asahi could smell the omega properly, only then realizing that it was … _off_. It was almost sour in smell and it made his skin crawl.

It could only mean one thing.

“What’s wrong?” Noya asked, stopping to stare at him.

“Go home.”

Noya shot him a funny look. “What?”

“Noya!” came Tanaka’s voice.

Of all the times he had to of shown up, right now could have possibly been the worst.

“You coming?”

“Sure thing!” Noya called back, and said goodbye to Asahi before turning to leave.

Asahi reached out and grabbed the other’s bicep. Noya stopped and stared back at him.

“You need to go home,” he repeated, trying not to panic, though he had a feeling he was failing miserably.

“Why?”

“It’s going to start soon.”

The omega looked at him with confusion for a moment before he watched the pieces click into place.

“No it’s not. I feel fine,” he answered back, looking a tad annoyed.

“Please, you have to go home!”

“I said I’m fine!”

Asahi’s jaw tightened. The sharp look in Noya’s eyes told him that his words will continue to fall short. He shouldn’t have been surprised. The younger has always been head strong, and was never one to cower, though he wished, just this once, he was actually afraid of something. Maybe then he’d actually heed Asahi’s words and go somewhere safe, because the omega had no idea what danger he could be throwing himself into.

His hand left Noya’s arm and found its way into short brown hair, ruffling it before resting on the back of the skull. At the motion, Noya’s stubborn glare lightened into one of surprise, and could only look up at him.

“Please,” he repeated once more, very softly.

When Noya failed to respond, Asahi glanced over his head to see that Tanaka had been standing in the doorway, watching, looking on with confusion. Asahi withdrew his hand and gave Noya one more pleading look before leaving his friend in the care of the other alpha.

It wasn’t like he could really tell the omega what to do. They were not mates, Noya was not _his_ , so he really didn’t have any right. For all he knew, Asahi could be wrong. Preemptive. Maybe it would start tomorrow, or the next day, and not today while at school, surrounded by stressed alphas and betas who might crumble at any sign of relief if the chance presented itself.

But still, he could not ignore the fear that gripped him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the lack of activity, but I've been busy getting ready for my trip! I'll be out of the country for the next 2 weeks, so I won't be able to update for a bit, which I feel really bad about because I left it at such a terrible spot! orz;; I'M SO SORRY!!
> 
> Also, I've been musing about it for a while now, and someone just brought it up in the comments, so I guess I'll just put it out there: would you guys be interested a daisuga prequel/spinoff thing? It would mainly be fleshing out their history and current actions, which I only mention briefly in here as to not distract too much from Noya and Asahi's story and use them as a nice parallel. But, like, if you guys are thirsty for more of their interactions, I'd feel like such a tease to NOT to give you something. I'd finish this story first though before making the other one, so the ending won't exactly be a huge shocker or anything, but IDK. 
> 
> I just kinda rambled. My bad. I'll let myself out now.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *appears a month later, drops a tiny chapter, and runs away wildly* 
> 
> don'tbemadatmedon'tbemadatmedon'tbemadatme

“What was _that_ about?”

Tanaka’s voice sounded somewhere around Noya’s right shoulder, though he payed no attention. All he seemed to be able to do was stare after the quickly retreating form of their team’s ace and clench his fists so tightly, the pain of the nails in his palms was soon becoming too much.

“Noya?”

The boy flinched and turned on his heel. “Let’s go,” he bit out and started walking away, with his friend trailing behind.

“Whoa!” Tanaka exclaimed and caught stride with Noya, who face forward, not looking at the other. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up! We’re you two fighting again?!”

“Drop it.”

“Dude, if you and Asahi have another falling out, the team will be —”

“I said drop it!”

Tanaka recoiled at Noya’s sudden harsh words accompanied by fiery eyes as Noya finally turned to his friend for the first time since they met up.

Noya blew harshly out through his nostrils, shaking his head and looking away once more. “I’m gonna have lunch alone today,” he said as calmly as he could. “See you at practice,” he added before walking off, leaving Tanaka alone and confused.

He felt like he was contradicting himself, separating from Asahi to have lunch with Tanaka, only to then leave Tanaka to go eat by alone, but all of a sudden he didn’t feel that hungry anymore, and his mind wouldn’t stop racing.

Why would Asahi say that? What did he mean that it was going to start soon? That didn’t make any sense. Noya felt normal. And how would he know anyway? If it was about to start, shouldn’t Noya be the first person to realize it? Get some sort of sign? It was _his_ body, how could an alpha know his body better than _he_ can?

His thoughts kept tripping over each other all through lunch and into class, one thought falling into another, and yet another, though somehow kept managing to come back to Asahi.

The giant had no reason to lie to him. It wasn’t in his nature anyhow. He had looked so nervous when he told Noya to go home. He also could have broken Noya’s arm with the intensity he had gripped him with when he had grabbed his arm earlier. So strong, and fearful. Yet it so easily disappeared when the hand had moved to the back of Noya’s head.

Noya found himself reaching for it, and stopped himself, replanting his hands onto his desk. He could still feel it, where Asahi’s hand was. It was almost like it still exuded heat.

What if the alpha was right? What if it _was_ going to start soon?

But how was the omega supposed to know when that was?

When it was work time, Noya tried to shake off his weighty thoughts and grabbed his pencil to start writing. It was then he finally noticed.

His hand was shaking.

He dropped his pencil instantly, making a small clatter as he now held both his hands before him and watched them tremble, slowly growing with more intensity. Tremors. He had tremors. Just like his first heat. He started to panic and rose from his chair.

“Nurse’s office,” he said aloud, and the teacher looked up at him over his glasses. It was meant to be a question, or at least a full statement, but his mouth didn’t seem to want to work correctly. The teacher looked at him for a moment, and seemed to have remembered something before giving the boy a nod and returning to his paperwork.

Noya practically ran out of there.

With each pounding stride down the hall, he felt the shaking reach his legs, threatening to cause his knees to buckle with each step.

_Why here? Why now? Why didn’t I just listen to him?_

When his skin felt like it was on fire, the nurse’s office seemed to be still an eternity away, so he ducked into the closest bathroom in desperation. Just as his hand clasped onto the edge of the sink, the dam broke loose.

His legs gave way, but he managed not to completely fall onto his face as he still held the sink’s rim. He was too hot. Everything was too hot. He was going to explode, he was going to die. Pressure was building within him, pushing up against his stomach, his skin, and making his clothes uncomfortable. He tried to raise himself back up to the sink, to dunk his head under cold water, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. It was too far, too much. He abandoned the sink idea and settled with pressing the tiled floor against his forehead. It was cool for a moment, before rapidly matching his own body temperature. A mere temporary solution. He needed a real solution.

He needed to go home.

His fist weakly pounded the floor in frustration. He had to stand. It was the only way to get to the nurse’s office, so they could call his parents to pick him … wait. It was the middle of the day. No one would be home. That meant he’d have to stay holed up in a room, locked away from everyone and everything until they could pick him up. He wasn’t sure if he’d last that long.

Noya quickly inhaled. He had heard the door just open.

He rolled onto his side so his face could see the two other boys who entered, who were now staring down at him, their eyes and breathing changing before him.

_Shit._

They moved quickly, without thought, grabbing at him, groping him. Noya retaliated, kneeing one in the jaw and gut punched the other. He tried his best to remain in constant motion, making it difficult for the others to touch his overly sensitive body, but two verses one was not a fair fight.

The one with darker hair wiped the blood from his mouth. “Grab him!” he yelled at the light haired boy, who complied. He managed to grab both of Noya’s elbows and pull them together tightly behind his back, making Noya cry out at the pain and strain his shoulders were going through. He tried to writhe more, but the light haired boy trapped his arms in place and the dark haired one grabbed his thighs and pushed them to the ground. All he could move was his head, so he tried to headbutt the boy trapping his arms, and failed.

He went to try again, but stopped when the boy behind him spoke.

“Hold on!”

“Just shut up and hold him still,” the other growled, trying to make his way into Noya’s pants, but having a hard time since Noya took any inch of freedom he could claim.

“No, I’m serious! I think this kid’s been marked!”

“What?”

_…What?_

“I didn’t smell it until now. It’s super faint … dude, what if he’s mated?! We’ll be fucking dead meat!”

“No way. No alpha would just let their mate walk around unattended, especially during heat.”

“But what if they’re _bonded_?! If his alpha finds us, we’ll get our shit handed to us!”

“I said shut up and hold him!”

They continued arguing, all the while Noya tried to wiggle free from their grip, and trying to kick the other in the face again before he could managed to get to his waistband. However, it was hard to concentrate on his escape plan when all he could think of were the words they spoke.

He’s been marked? What does that mean? That they just smell another alpha on him? He hangs around alphas all the time, just like any other omega. That can hardly be uncommon. It could be anyone’s scent they’re picking up. There’s Daichi, Ryuu, his mom, and …

_Asahi._

The back of his head, the part of his body where he was trying to hit the light haired boy with, that was where Asahi touched him earlier, that still tingled hours after. Maybe _that’s_ what the boy was referring too. That meant Asahi must have marked Noya earlier when he refused to go home.

Oh god, he should have listened to him. He should have just gone home right then and there. If he had just listened, he would be home, in his room, safe and sound, and not trapped in a bathroom with two arguing alphas who he wouldn’t be able to hold off much longer. He was too weak. Any thought of escape seemed to be slipping quickly through his fingers. It was only a matter of time at this point.

This isn’t what he wanted. This isn’t how it was suppose to happen. Not here, not with these people, these strangers. This kind of thing was suppose to happen with someone you trust, someone you care about, someone you love.

Not this. Anything but this.

Noya desperately willed himself not to cry.

_Asahi, please forgive me._


	14. Chapter 14

Something was wrong.

His spine crawled and his whole body went cold. His breathing stopped and his stomach twisted. All he was doing was sitting in his desk, trying to phase out his classmates, but out of nowhere this feeling grabbed him and clenched tightly, making sure it was the most important, most deserving of his attention.

It was the feeling of pure, unadulterated terror.

Something was _very_  wrong.

“Mr. Azumane? Is something the matter?”

The teacher was looking at him, as were all of his classmates. He then realized he was standing, chair knocked down behind him. He hadn’t even heard it clatter. He barely made out his own name from the teacher. It all seemed muffled, distant, not important. This place wasn’t important, he didn’t need to be here, he _shouldn’t_ be here. He needed to be somewhere else.

“Azumane?”

He stormed out of the room, ignoring any speech directed at him, or anything he happened to bump on his way out. They didn’t matter right now.

He couldn’t explain it, it was like his body had turned to autopilot. He wasn’t even sure where he was headed, or why, but he needed to be there, wherever that place was. It didn’t matter that he just walked out in the middle of class. It didn’t matter that he was running down the halls and stairs, heavy steps making a racket. The world could be on fire for all he cared, but everything around him felt insignificant compared to this feeling inside him, a black ooze that was quickly turning into powerful blaze. It was like it was telling him to hurry, and that he was almost there. He was close.

Asahi stopped so harshly that he skidded across the floor, surely making a noise, but he couldn’t hear it. He was more concerned with the smell that was slowly filling the hallway, a smell that seemed to be coming from the bathroom.

The smell of bread.

He slammed the door open and raced inside, only to stop and find three boys on the floor. Two of them whom he didn’t recognize were grabbing onto the one between them, the one’s whose pants were trying to be yanked down and jacket ripped open, whose skin was flushed and eyes were wet.

Nishinoya looked up at him, as did the other two. Then came the weakest voice.

“Asahi.”

He lost it.

He fucking lost it.

He yelled something, though he wasn’t sure they were even words. All he knew was that it was loud, and that he must have released his scent full blown without realizing it, for he watched the two boys visibly cower as their pupils shrank, with the pale haired boy letting go of Noya completely to cover his mouth and nose as he hissed with discomfort. Asahi grabbed the closest one, the one with dark hair and his hands still clasping Noya’s pants, yanking him by the front of his shirt until he held him eye to eye, the other boy’s feet dangling from the height distance. He struggled, grabbing Asahi’s wrist to no avail, head writhing trying to get away from the source of the scent so strong that it was making his eyes water. Asahi grabbed his jaw to make the boy face him. His pupils were practically nonexistent and his breathing was rapid, Asahi could feel each puff of air from his nose against his hand. The boy was terrified.

Good. That’s what he wanted. He wanted to make sure this scum would regret this moment for the rest of his life.

“Asahi, stop!”

He felt himself flinch, suddenly more aware of his surroundings. That the secondary boy was huddled against the far wall covering his face and mumbling madly to himself. That his grip on the first boy was so tight that tears had started to flow out and onto his hand. That Noya was staring at him, a pile on the floor, with a painfully familiar look in his eyes.

_Fear_.

Asahi instantly let go of his captive, who stumbled upon rejoining the floor. The boy looked up for a moment, before dashing out, followed sloppily by his friend, tripping over one another as they blew past the more powerful alpha and into the hallway. Asahi payed them no mind. They learned their lesson. Besides, he had something more important before him.

He remembered that his scent was still flowing at full strength, and quickly sealed himself back up. He could hear Noya’s breathing change, gasping at the now clear air as he rolled onto his side. Asahi dropped down to the floor beside him, and tried to ignore the disheveled sight and powerful omega smell, urging him to do something that _he’d_ regret.

“Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?” he asked quietly, urgently, and ran his hand through Noya’s hair in attempt to comfort him.

Noya looked up at him with a distressed look upon his face, unsure if he was going to cry or not. The younger just ended up shaking his head and clamping his eyes shut, then rubbed his face into the floor tiles as he curled into himself a bit more. It hurt to watch, to see him like this. In Asahi’s mind, Noya was always so strong and fierce, a mighty storm that could not be stopped. But now, all that strength seemed to have evaporated, leaving behind a small and scared child that had been pried apart at the seams. He could feel the smaller frame shake beneath his fingers. Seeing as his touches didn’t seem to be helping, Asahi slowly pulled away, only to have the omega reach out and grab his arm.

“Don’t go,” he pleased quietly, his voice breaking.

“I won’t,” Asahi answered. He placed his hand back on Noya’s head and the omega looked up at him.

“I was,” he started, interrupting his sentence with a noise that Asahi couldn’t tell if it was a laugh or a sob, “… so scared … pathetic.”

Asahi only answered with a sad look and the omega dropped his gaze, closing his eyes again and tried to get ahold of his sporadic breathing. His face was flushed and he felt warm to the touch. In a disgusting way, Asahi’s body was reacting to Noya’s current state, feeling his own skin grow warmer and his own problem forming below the belt. He caught himself staring, smelling, thinking of things he shouldn’t be thinking about, especially not now. Noya was at his most vulnerable, in a place far too public, too dangerous. He needed to get him somewhere safe.

“Can you stand?”

Noya ground his face into the floor some more. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Come on,” Asahi encouraged, easing the omega up into a sitting position, helping him readjust himself. “Get on my back.”

The omega make a weak attempt to fix his clothes before staring at him, as though finally hearing what he had said. “What?”

“I’m taking you home.”

“But no one is there.”

Asahi bit his tongue painfully at the sudden images dancing through his head, then shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s safer than here.”

For a moment, it looked like Noya was going to argue against it, but any fight he had left in him was gone. Slowly, with help, the omega climbed onto Asahi’s back, wrapping his arms around the broad collarbone and legs dangling limply in strong arms. Once he was sure the other boy was securely on his back, he stood and they left the bathroom.

And he ran.

They were stopped by no one, though he didn’t see many people as class was still in session and he darted out the closest door leading to outside. He was thankful for this, along with the fact that Noya lived so close by. He wasn’t sure if he could last a long hike with a warm omega pressing against his back, a head pressed against his neck and a gradual dampness seeping into the clothes on his lower back. Even though Asahi was the one running, all he could hear were the other’s ragged breaths so close to his ears. His pants were too tight, his skin was too hot, and his school slippers were not made for how fast he was running, let alone running outside to begin with, causing his feet to hurt. He had to ignore it all, every single ache and desire that screamed at him wildly, because they didn’t matter right now. He was reminded of this by the small fists clenching for dear life against his chest.

Finally, they had reached the house, waiting silently for them on an empty street. Asahi stopped at the door and stared for a brief second.

“Do you have your keys?”

He felt the head against him rock back and forth, and Asahi cursed to himself. Before he had time to panic and rush to find a different solution, Noya spoke.

“Under the windowsill.”

Asahi was confused for a second and looked around, then spotted said windowsill. He adjusted the weight on his back so Noya was supported by only one hand, doing his best to tune out the dampness and the small noise the boy made. With his now free hand, he felt underneath the sill blindly until he felt a small box mounted against the wood. He managed to finagle it open, and the key dropped into his hand. He quickly unlocked the door and locked it behind them, toeing off his abused slippers and racing through the quiet house to Noya’s room, where he placed the boy on the bed.

“I’m sorry.”

Asahi turned to face Noya, who had straight out laid down on his bed, sheets still messed and tossed to the side from this morning. The alpha had sat down on the edge of the bed, putting just enough space between them to let his poor body rest and catch his breath.

“What do you mean?”

“I should have listened to you,” he said. His heat made his voice uneven and soft. “If I had just gone home, none of this would’ve happened.”

The older boy sighed and shook his head. “It’s alright,” he said gently. “I’m sorry I didn’t show up sooner.”

Noya was quiet for a moment, the only sound was his stressed breathing. “How did you … know where I was?”

Asahi blinked. “Uh,” he thought aloud, and scratched the back of his head. His bun was falling apart from the piggyback ride. “It’s … well, I honestly don’t know. I just … kind of ran.”

There was no immediate response, just the boy thinking, closing his eyes and moving slightly in place. At this point, the scent he was releasing was starting to become too much to bear.

“Is it because you marked me?”

His stomach sharply twisted. “What?”

“The guy, the one holding my arms, he said something. That I had been marked. That was you, right?”

His mind was racing. He didn’t recall marking him, let alone knowing exactly how to mark someone. He just knew that alphas could do it, though he wasn’t even sure how, which meant if he had marked Noya, he had done so without even realizing it.

Which meant he practically marked his territory and professed his love for the other boy unintentionally for all the world to see.

He suddenly felt like he was going to be sick.

“Stop that.”

Asahi turned back to Noya, who was staring at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“I said stop that,” he repeated, regaining his usual glower, somehow out of place on flushed skin. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I can practically hear you thinking. I’m not mad at you.”

The alpha stared back, listening to the way the other’s words started to break before he watched the other writhe suddenly, and he felt a stronger wave of scent fall over him, causing all the hair on his body to stand on end and his jaw clench tight. He balled his hands into fists at his side to hold them in place, preventing them from lunging forward as they so desired to do. At this rate, his body would cave and take over, just like in the bathroom, and he didn’t think that once it was let loose that he could bring himself to stop.

He had to leave. _Now_.

As soon as he rose from his spot, a hand reached out again, hot skin grabbing his own.

“You said,” he grunted out, “you wouldn’t leave.”

Asahi’s brow crumpled. By god, he didn’t want to leave. “Noya, I have to.”

“Please.”

He gripped his thigh tightly to cope. “Noya, I don’t … I can’t hold out much longer…”

The other’s eyes darted around Asahi’s face, taking in the situation, possibly realizing for the first time what the heat was doing to the alpha beside him. He watched the boy bite his lip and swallow, croaking out, “It’s fine.”

“What are you-”

“Just stay,” he pleaded. “Please, don’t go.”

“Noya…” he said quietly, clasping tighter to his leg. “If I stay, I don’t know what I’ll do. I … I won’t be able to stop.”

He felt the hand around his wrist tighten and watched the other avert his eyes somewhere else as he forced words through his whines and ragged breaths. “In my first heat,” he slowly admitted, “I hated it. I thought I was going to die. And the only way I managed to survive it … was you.”

Asahi was quiet, only watching.

“I … thought of you and … just stay, okay? As long as it’s you, it’s fine,” he finally looked to Asahi. “That’s all I want. So, please say here.”

The alpha swallowed thickly. He wasn’t sure if he was really hearing any of this. Maybe it was a sick prank his mind was torturing him with as he swam through an ocean of Noya’s scent. He adjusted himself, moving closer and leaning so he could better see the other’s face, read the other’s eyes, make sure no lies were being said or word misheard.

“Are you sure?” he asked as calmly as he could manage, fighting the quake in his body and the fire in his belly.

Noya nodded slowly, somehow smiling through it all. “I trust you,” he said. “So please … help me.”

The world disappeared and the fire consumed him.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peeks out from under rock*  
> *slides out tiny chapter*
> 
> hi

He wasn’t scared. Not like he was earlier.

Strange faces, strange hands, strange smells, they were fears he never knew he had until he couldn’t escape them. He was sure that he’d never be able to forget them, even though he hoped that he would.

Then there was Asahi.

Not once had Noya ever seen him like that, so raw and angry. For the longest time, Noya believed that not a single hair on that boy’s head contained a lick of violence, or the ability to be cruel to another living thing. He was proven wrong when he watched the alpha turn two others into quivering sacks of tears. With that burning smell he seared the air with, and the fiery slits his eyes had become, Noya wondered how far Asahi would have gone if he had not managed to choke out Asahi’s name to have him stop. The thought alone chilled him.

Despite all the rage he had displayed, it vanished the instant the alpha turned to him. The very hand he watched the other nearly crush someone’s jaw with stroked through his hair so gently. His eyes were normal, his face was normal, he was back to the Asahi that he knew, the meek caring giant. Noya had a feeling that if he had tried to tell anyone what had happened, that their team’s glass hearted spiker turned into a rabid beast when provoked, they’d never believe him. Hell, Noya _himself_ couldn’t believe it, not when the boy had spoke so softly and handled him so cautiously only moments later.

Even after seeing all of that, and listening to the alpha give warning of what he might do to him, Noya wasn’t scared. The trust he had for the other was stronger than any fear that might try to claw at him.

He watched the ace carefully, just like he did every practice and every game, and saw pupils expand as soon as Noya had said that it was okay. They themselves were so wide that they could devour Noya on the spot.

The hateful stench from earlier was gone, and Asahi released a different smell. It reminded Noya of the only other time Asahi had exposed his scent to him, but it was stronger, warmer, and his breathing wasn’t hindered. Perhaps the only way to describe the smell was safe, and maybe arousing, since it seemed to send small crackles through his already sensitive body. Hands did not immediately jump for his clothes, or the flesh beneath them, but instead to his face and back of his skull to arch his head just right for mouths to align.

The kisses were hungry, almost needy, as though he had been starved of such things, but Noya wasn’t opposed. The alpha’s tongue seemed to be on a mission, for it explored every cranny his mouth had, then leaving it to discover what the rest of the boy tasted like, gliding against jawbones, earlobes, and any exposed neck it could find. Noya was pressed hard into the mattress when Asahi adjusted himself on top of him, knees on either side as his mouth returned to Noya’s and his hands began removing clothes. He moved fast, powerfully, and it made Noya’s skin scream as hands covered him, every inch of him. They only disappeared when they went to remove Asahi’s own vest and shirt, utterly destroying whatever had been left of his bun and letting hair fall every which way. He hadn’t seemed to notice, and dived back into Noya’s mouth while his hands pulled the smaller’s body closer, until Noya’s lower half was tilted up into his lap while his head and shoulders remained pressed into the bed with forceful kisses.

He felt Asahi grind against him, pressing a very hard erection against his sensitive skin through the older boy’s pants. Over his own gasps and groans came the quietest moan. Noya wasn’t even sure he heard it until Asahi ground again, making the sound once more. It honestly felt tortured.

“You’re,” Noya gasped as hands started lightly touching his own erection, “holding back,” he managed to breathe out.

At the response, hands relocated to his hips and gripped strongly, causing Noya to whimper. They pushed him off of the alpha’s lap and onto the bed, and now there was no holding back.

Noya’s head rolled as he gasped, so overtaken by the mass sensation that breathing seemed to no longer be an automatic function. One hand worked his cock while the other pushed into him, fingers spreading and prodding, swirling within him. They were not kind, but they were not cruel, and when they left Noya, he watched them get licked clean by Asahi who had been watching him the whole time.

Every inch of his body was red and practically on fire, and somehow managed to burn even hotter when Asahi lowered his own pants and his scent suddenly engulfed him to the point he almost came right then and there.

Then Asahi pushed inside him.

Whatever he had imagined during his last heat wasn’t anything like this. That his spine was pushed to the limit as his shoulders were trapped under strong hands, his own pelvis arched up into Asahi’s, who thrusted in and out relentlessly above him. The alpha’s small moans and pants from earlier were long gone, and were replaced with something much louder, vicious, and animalistic. His eyes were what really sealed it, they way they locked onto Noya’s beneath him between kisses and nips. There was a small sting on his lip, but Noya ignored it. He didn’t have the mind to worry about it. It was still trying to keep up with the good feeling that he was overcome with.

This was nothing like his last heat, and this was nothing like the bathroom earlier. There was no fear, no pain, no pleading wish for death to grace him. Despite his ragged breathing matched with Asahi’s growls, and the steady pounding of flesh into flesh, he swore that he could feel what the other was feeling, and somehow their beings were in sync. It sounded lame, and childish, but something was there, gripping their insides and somehow intertwining them. They didn’t need words anymore, he just knew, and was prepared when something swelled within him and fire took them both.

The heat left him, and he embraced bliss.


	16. Chapter 16

Asahi slowly came back to his senses.

Noya was quick to fall asleep, barely allowing any time for clean up, and not enough time for apologies. From what Asahi had gathered by the cut lip and faint marks, he hadn’t been very gentle, allowing his usual guilt to start seeping in. Though the smaller never cried out, no begging to stop, at least none that he could remember. Besides, the look on his face was so peaceful, Asahi couldn’t help but touch it one more time before pulling the sheets over him and gathering scattered clothing.

He used a hair dryer he found in the bathroom to try and dry out his clothes just enough so any wet spots wouldn’t be noticeable, and quickly threw them back on, all but his sweater. He sighed at the tangled mess his hair had become and tried his best to wrangle it back into an acceptable bun like it had been early, before he abandoned school to go and ravish the omega that he totally marked earlier that day.

He grumbled to himself as he rubbed his face. He couldn’t believe he had done that. _Any_ of that. _Anything_ he’s done this _whole_ afternoon seemed outlandish, impossible, and yet, here he was. His day was obviously not filled with the best decisions in his life. For instance, leaving his bag, his phone, his keys, and his real shoes all at school, which meant he had to walk back and grab them, hopefully not running into anyone on the way. In all honesty, he’d rather stay here, but he knew that it wasn’t the wisest choice. He had to make at least one smart discussion today. Before he left, he poked his head back in to Noya’s room to make sure he was still sleeping. He couldn’t help but smile to himself.

In the end, he gripped his vest against him and released his scent one last time before quickly sealing it up again, and leaving his vest with Noya, leaving the omega something for when he woke up with the alpha no longer at his side. He had to leave, so his vest would have to take his place for now. He hoped Noya wouldn’t mind.

He locked the door behind him and replaced the key in the hidden box, then walked down the street back towards the school, watching his feet as he walked. He tried to distract his thoughts on how he was going to have to face his teacher later on after running out of class with no explanation whatsoever since he had a feeling “alpha/omega needs” weren’t a liable excuse, and stared at his school slippers. They hadn’t survived the trip very well, now scuffed with popped seams and the fairly thin bottoms were worn down enough to produce a small hole in either sole. He’ll have to request new ones, which will most likely be accompanied by small scolding.

By the time he had reached school, it was halfway through free-period, which he was almost thankful for. At least now, there wouldn’t be a teacher to harass him nor people in the hall to spot him. It also meant he wouldn’t have to face Daichi or even -

“Suga,” he found himself blurting out as he looked up from the entry way.

The other boy had been walking down the hallway, most likely going to the restroom or something, but matched eyes with Asahi when his name was called. He then watched the shorter boy’s eyes expand at a sharp inhale, then immediately morph into slits as hair stood on end.

Asahi really should have been prepared for the fist that collided with his jaw.

Instead, he grabbed his now sore jaw and stared blankly at his friend.

“You son of a bitch!” the boy yelled and went to hit Asahi again, but this time he was prepared and blocked him.

“What are you-“

He yelled again and swung at him, but again, Asahi blocked it. Thankfully, he didn’t need to keep this up for long, because arms swooped up and pulled the rapid teen off of him.

“Suga! Calm down!” said Daichi, now struggling with his fellow captain as he flailed.

“He trusted you!” he spat at Asahi. “He trusted you, and you took advantage of him, you bastard!”

Asahi stared at him confused for a moment, but the gears slowly clicked into place. Now, somehow those words hurt more than the first punch did.

“Suga! Calm down or all three of us are going to get in trouble.”

The omega breathed heavily through his nose, but stopped fighting. He stood still long enough that Daichi finally released him.

“Don’t think I can’t tell,” he glared at him. “I can smell it on you.”

Asahi grabbed his clothes out of reflex. _This_ was why he didn’t want to run into anyone.

Daichi, at Suga’s mention, sniffed the air himself for the first time since he got there. Asahi watched the realization come across the other’s face, much to Asahi’s shame.

“It’s not like that,” he mumbled out, flicking back and forth between them.

“Like what?” asked Daichi.

“He forced himself onto Noya,” Suga spat, still glaring at Asahi.

“I-I didn’t!”

“Then where is he?!”

“He’s safe!”

“Where?!”

“I-”

“Stop,” Daichi interrupted, rubbing his head. “Just stop, both of you. Slow down, and start over.” He turned to Suga. “What is this about Noya?”

“Noya’s an omega,” Suga said, keeping his eyes on Asahi, ignoring his very perplexed captain.

“Wait, I thought he was a beta.”

“He presented just recently.”

“How do you know this?”

“Noya told me.” This was the first time Suga’s voice got soft, closer to his usual tone. “Right after his first heat, he came to me, though told me not to tell anyone else. But Asahi found out on his own.”

Daichi looked over at Asahi, who said nothing and rubbed his neck uncomfortably.

“It was just fine until Asahi forced Noya into submission in the locker room.”

“I didn’t mean to do that!” Asahi automatically spat out. “Noya was pressuring me, and-”

“Did he pressure you _today_? Is that why you _reek_ and with no sign of Noya to be seen?” The venom in Suga’s voice returned.

“No! I told you, it’s not like that!”

“Then _what_?! He told me he trusted you and didn’t fear you or your differences in class, and yet I can smell him on you, which means you broke that trust. You took him at his worst and-”

“I _SAVED_ HIM.”

The other boys straightened at the sudden outburst from Asahi. He wasn’t one to yell in conversation, or speak forcefully in general, especially amongst them. Daichi was mainly surprised, but Suga seemed taken aback, almost injured. Asahi ignored it and went with the momentum that somehow caught him.

“I saved him, earlier, in the bathroom,” he repeated, bringing his voice back down. “I had told him to go home, but he didn’t listen, and his heat started here at school. I ran and found him in the bathroom.” He swallowed. “There were two guys on him and …” Asahi was quiet for a moment, letting the events rerun through his head, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak them, to explain the disturbing sight and then the violent actions afterwards. “… I took him home, where he’d be safe.”

Suga’s face tried to stay fairly neutral, but anger peeked through his mouth and sympathetic horror showed through his eyes. When he spoke, it was quieter that earlier. “Then why do you…”

“I went to leave, and Noya said no,” Asahi answered, just as quietly. “And I couldn’t … I couldn’t bring myself to argue …”

The two of them remained quiet, staring at each other, and Asahi watched the other’s shoulders slowly relax. Asahi could see it, the connection Suga had drawn between Noya and himself. He was only looking out for the younger, placing his own fears onto him. Because of it, Asahi couldn’t be mad at him for clawing at his throat. Besides, Suga seemed to start realizing his own mistakes, for any anger on his face started to melt away.

Daichi was the one to break the silence.

“You said you ran and found him in the bathroom?”

Asahi nodded.

“Wait, how did you know he was in _that_ bathroom? There are half a dozen bathrooms in this school.”

The ace looked at his friend before looking around and scratching his head. “I-I don’t really know. I just … something felt _wrong_ and I ran without thinking. Before I realized it, I had found him.”

Saying it out loud still sounded incredibly stupid, and down right insane. He was waiting for a scoff, but nothing like that came. The most he read off of Daichi’s face was understanding.

“You felt like he was in trouble,” he said, as more of a clarification than an actual question.

“Yeah.”

Daichi looked to Suga for a long moment, then half laughed to himself. “You’re bonded.”

Both Asahi and Suga looked at Daichi. “What?”

“You knew that he needed you and you knew exactly where he was,” he said, turning back to Asahi. “You could _feel_ him.”

Asahi let the words sink into his skin, slowly understanding everything. The reason he suddenly felt afraid while sitting in his classroom was because he felt _Noya’s_ fear, and that feeling led the way to him, even if he hadn’t been aware of it at the time. It explained why it was so powerful and important, that it made the world seem to disappear. The same thing happened in Noya’s room. However, it wasn’t fear he felt, but something greater, warmer, and filled his insides to the brim, drowning out everything else. Even now, in a corner of his stomach felt a sense of bliss and ease, despite having a sore jaw and slowly subsiding guilt. He now realized that the out of place feeling was probably Noya, and that he was still asleep, happy and unaware.

“So what now?” Asahi found himself saying aloud.

His voice dragged the other two out of their own thoughts and back to the conversation at hand.

“Don’t know,” Daichi said honestly. “All I know is that you’re Noya’s alpha, and he’s your omega. What you do about it now, you’ll have to talk about it with him.”

Asahi looked up to the ceiling, thinking of some possible way to go about this, how to bring it up with Noya — if he was even okay with it — as well as both of their parents. His thoughts didn’t get too deep, however, for they were interrupted by a new voice.

“Noya’s an omega?”

All three of them turned to see Tanaka standing, staring at them, stunned.

_Well, shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost done. Praise be to bakeries. orz;;


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *pokes head in after several months of silence*
> 
> Ah...haha..haaaa......b-beTTER LATE THEN NEVER, AM I RIGHT?!???? orz;;;

Noya awoke to a great thunder, followed by an even louder bang. It was a full on storm that carried with it the vicious smell of burning metal.

_Mom._

He barely had time to register his surroundings, that he was in his own room, in bed, only in his underwear and clutching a sweater vest obviously too large for him. He at least had enough sense and speed to realize that it was Asahi’s and hide it beneath the sheets before his bedroom door was nearly broken down.

“Who was in my house?!” his mother screamed, though he was more distracted by the paralyzing stench she had begun drowning the room in. “Who did this to you? Who touched you?”

“Mom, stop,” he said weakly, fighting the fear and stiffing of muscles that the smell was forcing upon him.

She did not seem to hear him, for she was all over his room, touching everything, searching everywhere, coating every nook and cranny with her scent.

“Their scent is _everywhere_. Where are they?! How dare they think they can come here and touch my son!”

“Mom…”

“They’re not going to get away with this!”

“MOM! STOP IT!”

Her frantic rummaging through his room stopped and she turned to her son. Her breathing was crazed and eyes were wild. This was the first time she looked at him since entering the room. As he stared back at her, struggling to breathe the fiery air, she soon realized her actions and straighten in shock as the smell diminished, allowing Noya’s lungs to work properly again. Her scent was still there, though now very quiet even as it was still at work trying to eliminate the foreign smell that infiltrated her den.

“Yuu,” she spoke with a much softer voice as she approached the bed and sat beside her son. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“No, Mom, I’m okay.”

“You look far from it,” she said with a sizzle of anger showing through as she ran cool fingers over his face, gracing a very sensitive bottom lip. “Who did this?”

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“Tell me who touched you.”

“I said I’m-“

“ _Tell me_ ,” she hissed and the smell of burning metal suddenly filled his nose completely, and Noya felt himself speak before he could stop it.

“Asahi.”

She let go of her son and he watched her mind try and process the information, seeing her face go from confusion, to realization, to seething rage.

“That deceiving bastard,” she said through her teeth as she rose from her spot on the bed.

_Shit, shit, shit._

“M-mom, wait,” Noya managed to say, though she was already heading towards the door, whispering death threats as she walked. With every step she took, all Noya could picture was her tracking Asahi down and starting an alpha fight, which could only end with Asahi broken and defeated. He would never fight back, especially not against Noya’s mother, even more so that knowing Asahi, he already felt guilty for everything that had transpired. If she found him and had a stand off, he would not survive, and could never bring himself to face Noya ever again.

_No._

“Stop!” he yelled after her and leapt out of bed to run after her, only to forget his weakened state and crash down onto the floor of the hallway, making a large racket in the process.

That was enough to make his mother stop and turn to her son. It was obvious on her face that her mind was torn between staying and protecting her child and storming off to avenge him, so she remained where she was, stuck and unsure. Then there was the slightest waver as she turned her head towards the front door. Once again, words came from his mouth that he could not stop from coming.

“ _I love him_.”

That did it. She stopped all progression forward and turned completely to face her son.

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Noya found himself pleading, and it was almost disgusting, but it kept coming. “He stopped two creeps from attacking me in the bathroom. He brought me home and made sure I was safe, and I asked him to stay. He’s the kindest person I have ever met,” he rambled, ignoring the way his voice was wavering and his sight was blurring. “He’s a coward and has no self confidence what so ever, but I don’t care because he makes me happy, so please, _please_ don’t scare him off.”

Tears finally fell and the fight left the alpha as she watched her son start crying over a boy, a tall, stupid, sweet and loving boy. All traces of burning metal gradually disappeared as she walked closer and replaced itself with a small, gentle smell that Noya hadn’t smelled in years, the smell she’d make as she cradled her crying child on a bad day. Just like back then, arms scooped Noya off the floor as she shushed into his ear and held him as they stood in the hallway.

“It’s okay,” she soothed, “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to over-react. I won’t hurt him, it’s okay.”

Noya didn’t even know what had come over him. Maybe it was his heat cranking up his emotions, or the fact that he went from nearly raped, to saved, to being taken by the person he loved, then to the idea of suddenly loosing him all in one afternoon. Whatever the reason, he didn’t care to fight it as he cried into his mother’s shoulder and bathed in warm arms and warm scents.

He heard his mother let out a small chuckle. “You haven’t cried in years. You must really love him.”

No more words found their way out of his throat, so he nodded against her and she rested her head on his. They stayed like that for a while until his breathing seemed to be getting back to normal, and she spoke again.

“Never met a cowardly alpha before.”

Noya could only laugh in response.

 

* * *

 

They ended up talking for some time, setting down rules and boundaries, as well as clarifying many questions Noya had about what all happened that day. While his mother was extremely angered by the two random attackers, she did her best to ignore it and address the more important things, primarily revolving around Asahi.

From what she gathered by the way Noya talked about Asahi finding him and the way he responded to the other boys, she deducted that they were bonded, just like her and his father were. It meant that they now had a connection to each other, born from their love for one another, which allowed them always find each other, and experience a closeness that unbonded mates didn’t share, a closeness that allowed them to feel what the other feels when the emotion was strong enough. That bond was the reason Asahi was able to find Noya when he was in trouble, and it had nothing to do with the marking on his head. That was a territorial device, a warning to others to back off. The fact that the other boys crossed that line might have been the reason Asahi reacted the way he did. As long as others don’t try to cross that line again, Asahi would remain the way he is, kind and meek, the way Noya knows him best.

As for what happened now, his mother wasn’t exactly pleased with the idea of her son mating every heat, but she at least understood it and set certain rules for them to abide to: No “activities” while the rest of the family was present, and clear the air afterward the best they could. Asahi was permitted to keep spare clothes here and use their shower afterwards if need be. Once the heat started, Noya was not allowed to leave the house, and she preferred if he was home before it started. For any reason, due to some _freakish_ series of events, it started at Asahi’s house instead, he was to still not to leave the house, but inform her right away of his location, and he was allowed to stay there the remainder of the heat. _However_ , this was not to be a regular thing.

She also told him that she’d have to talk to Asahi’s parents about the whole situation as well, which Noya was not looking forward too. He had yet to even meet the ace’s parents, and therefore had no frame of reference on how’d they react to the idea of their son now mating with a boy they had never met.

The urge to groan into his hands was interrupted by the doorbell.

His mother stopped stirring the pot on the stove and stared at the door, before turning to Noya, who had been sitting at the table, where she left him after helping him down the hall.

“Can you get back to your room?”

“Yeah,” he said slowly standing. He was still weaker than his usual self, but the heat had yet to come back full force after Asahi’s assistance. Noya hoped that it’d stay this way until the end, though he seriously doubted it would. At least it was a nice thought.

When Noya was a safe distance from the doorway, he heard his mother open it, but heard no vocal exchange. He laid down in his bed as he waited for supper to be ready, and found Asahi’s vest poking out the side of his bed. Carefully, he pulled it free from the sheet and brought it to his face and breathed in. Even though his mother’s earlier rampage managed to eliminate a lot of Asahi’s presence in the room, the vest still held the smell of warm wood. He wondered if the alpha left it on purpose or simply forgot it. Either way, he cuddled it to his chest and felt safe.

His mother soon appeared at his door, holding his school bag.

“Someone left this on the door step. I believe it was Ryuu,” she said and handed him his forgotten things. “He really is scared to set foot in this house, isn’t he?”

“Fears for his life,” Noya grinned back.

She barked with laughter. “I’ll bring you supper once it’s ready.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

She nodded and returned to the kitchen, back to her unattended pot. Noya opened his school bag to find books and homework waiting for him. On top was a note with familiar jagged handwriting, always too enthusiastic to stay on the page.

< Heard you’re an omega now. Never would have guessed! Kinda sucks I didn’t hear it from you, but I understand. Anyway, call me when you’re better! My sis got me a new game and I totally have to kick your butt in it, you know, as payback. >

Noya felt a bit guilty, but gave a half smile at the note before setting it on his side table as a reminder to call him later. He’ll explain it to him, all of it, next time he sees him. The idea of talking about it with his friend didn’t seem so frightening anymore, now that the ice has been broken.

He took out his homework and splayed it across his desk, then shook out the remainder of the bag onto the floor as it mainly held clothes, however he heard a thud as something hard hit the floor. He rummaged through the new mess on the floor to find his phone, and saw a new text message awaiting him.

It was Asahi.

< Are you okay? >

This time, he really did laugh. It was the same short message the giant had sent the last heat. It had been sent a little while ago, and after some guessing and mathwork, Noya locked it onto the little event his mother and him had when he first woke up. The alpha really could feel him after all. He shook his head a bit and instead of texting him back, he tapped his phone in hesitation a few times before hitting the call button. He waited patiently as the phone rang, and Asahi’s voice came through the speaker.

“Noya, how are you feeling?”

“Guess.”

“What?”

“Come on, you can do it,” Noya played. “We’re bonded now, right?”

It was silent for a moment, then came a nervous, “…is that okay?”

Noya laughed, “Of course it is! I didn’t have a long ass heart to heart with my mom about it if I wasn’t okay with it.”

He heard a small noise through the receiver, followed by, “I … forgot about your mom…”

Noya closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, to see if he could feel Asahi. There. Just barely. “Don’t be so scared, she’s okay with it.”

It was weird to both hear the relief through the phone as well as fell a small echo of it from within. It was something he was going to have to get used to.

“Head’s up, though, she’s gonna talk to your parents about it, so you might wanna break it to them when they get home.”

“R-right.” Silence. “Oh, um, and I’m sorry, but … Tanaka found out, that, um, you’re…”

“I know,” he said. “It’s okay.”

“And, um, Daichi knows, too.”

“Geez! Way to not keep your mouth shut,” teased Noya.

“I’m sorry,” he bumbled pathetically through the phone. “Suga and I got into a fight and Daichi showed up to calm it down, and that’s when Tanaka heard about everything and-“

“Wait, you and Suga got into a fight?” Noya had to try his best to not laugh.

“Y-yeah. He punched me because he thought I … well…”

“Stop it.”

“Sorry,” he instantly replied.

“You know you didn’t do anything wrong, right?”

“I know.”

“Good, you’re learning.”

Half a laugh came through the speaker.

“Did he seriously punch you, though? I can’t believe it.”

“It’s true! But after Daichi intervened, we kind of sorted things out… he was very protective of you…”

Noya smiled to himself. “Not as much as you are.”

They were quiet as they both recalled a side of Asahi neither one of them had ever known existed.

Noya broke the silence. “You haven’t guessed yet.”

“Huh?”

The omega leaned against the wall, fiddling with the other’s vest as he talked. “You haven’t guess how I’m feeling right now.”

There was a pause, then a soft word spoken through a smile.

“Happy.”

Noya smiled with him.

“Very happy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END~~~! 
> 
> Thank you all for your patience and reading this beast of a fic! It was long than I ever anticipated, but it was pretty fun, so I guess it was worth it. Each and every comment all of you left have been so nice and really helped me keep going, so I apologize for such a long wait at the end. I hope you all can forgive me. m(u_u)m
> 
> If you guys still have some BURNING questions, go ahead and ask and I'll try my best to answer them! HOWEVER, I will NOT answer what happens between Suga and Daichi. I know I didn't address their relationship at the end, but this is not their story. I didn't want to quickly wrap up their very complex situation as a paragraph of background activity. They deserve better. Perhaps I can give them a proper ending in their own fic in the (hopefully) near future. <3
> 
> THANKS AGAIN FOR STICKING AROUND~~~!! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!


End file.
